As a junior associate at Bär & Karrer, you will receive targeted training for the bar exam over a period of 14 months, the duration may vary depending on the location. You will join one of our smoothly running teams and dive head first into our dynamic day-to-day work. You’ll be given responsibility early on and will be able to gain insights into the work of other teams.

Our junior associates are an extremely tight-knit group. They help each other out and even sometimes meet up after work. Every Friday there is a trainee lunch where experienced lawyers help the next generation of legal professionals get up to speed on what they need to know for the bar exam.

We are happy to report that many of our junior associate rejoin us as associates after passing their bar exam. Associates choose their preferred area of specialisation and do exciting work that makes waves in the legal world and beyond. This is a time of intense learning: your network will grow, and you will be supported and developed by the partner in your field – both personally and professionally.

Perhaps this sounds a bit over the top, but there’s a grain of truth in it. With an LL.M. (Master of Laws) degree you will truly expand your horizons in a multitude of areas: culturally, linguistically, personally – and of course in your legal knowledge, as you’ll learn about other fundamentals and approaches.

This is a bundle of skills and experiences that can give your career a real boost, and it is an important requirement for success in our international law firm. You decide where you want this path to take you: England, the U.S., Australia and Singapore are just a few commonly chosen options.

… but be sure to stay down to earth, as we find it important to stay grounded despite our success and ambitions. During this phase of your career you will put your experience as well as your significant legal knowledge on display, learning more every day and growing into the role of partner step by step.

With your goal now in sight, the decision lies in the hands of the partner committee, which decides – in a multi-step process – who will join them as partner. Here your field-specific knowledge isn’t the sole criterion: we also consider the human factor to make sure it’s a good fit.

Nowhere should our clients be understood and advised better than with us. That’s why the solutions we develop are always tailored to the individual needs of our clients. To this end, we follow our own path, also in the training of our associates.

The optimal solution always begins with understanding. Legally, you have the tools to grasp problems quickly. However, the backgrounds and interrelationships of the mostly very complex cases often lie outside our familiar legal field.

That's why, in partnership with the University of St.Gallen, we developed the Bär & Karrer College – a course of study to suit your daily life and future career. The course is designed to hone your legal skills, add to your knowledge with regard to trends, strategy, processes, organisation, risk management, accounting and finance management, and also develop your soft skills, with a particular focus on the needs of the client.

The top five benefits for you at a glance:

• Up-to-date knowledge, tailored to your level of training and your needs as an associate, that you can put into practice immediately.
• Training from the best in their fields: professors at the University of St.Gallen, carefully selected experts and partners of Bär & Karrer.
• Flexible training modules ranging from two hours to six days, in-house and once per year in St.Gallen.
• We pay all the costs, and training is provided during work hours. You will be required to give up one Saturday every six months at most.
• Qualification with a certificate from the University of St.Gallen worth 10 credit points that count in full towards the HSG's Executive MBA programme and other MBA programmes.