3 minute read‍

We’re Emma and Sophie, two law students currently doing our master’s degree at KU Leuven (Belgium). Two months ago, Thomas, one of Aeco’s co-founders asked us if we would be interested in doing an internship at Aeco, a Legal Tech start-up. By writing this blog, we wanted to share our experience with other students.

The start of our journey

As ambitious law students we are eager to do several internships in order to gain insights into our future careers. Before we met Thomas, we never really considered the learning opportunities a non-traditional internship could offer us. This internship challenged us to look beyond the obvious choice of a law firm or legal department and broadened our perspective on the legal world. We highly encourage other law students to do the same and explore the broad variety of possibilities a legal degree has to offer. 

This internship challenged us to look beyond the obvious choice and broadened our perspective on the legal world.

Even though we were already interested in the connection between law and technology, we had very little experience with alternative legal services, legal technology and innovation. During our studies, we’ve received a rather traditional education with little focus on these upcoming areas of the law. Driven by curiosity and a desire to learn more about these emerging trends, we embarked on our Legal Tech adventure.

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What we learned at Aeco

Aeco is a start-up founded by three brothers on a mission to transform the legal industry. Since Aeco is a young and fast growing company,  we were able to tag along on their journey and witness the progress first hand. Being submerged in the start-up mindset, taught us to look beyond the purely legal side of a company. Instead, we learned to take every aspect of the business into account: the legal angle as well as client centricity, the technology side as well as marketing. And first and foremost, the importance of internal and external process mapping.

Being submerged in the start-up mindset, taught us to look beyond the legal side of a company

We experienced the added value of legal tech. We saw how innovation and digital transformation can build a bridge between lawyers and clients. In only a few weeks, we were able to sharpen and transform our theoretical legal knowledge into a hands-on and practical experience. Thomas acted as a true mentor and not only helped us to challenge ourselves but also to challenge each other. 

The internship prompted us to abandon the traditional way of legal analysis for a more client-oriented approach. Stepping into the Aeco philosophy, meant stepping out of our own comfort zone. We learned how to capture the important details, to explore our own creativity and to work independently yet dare to ask for help when needed. We truly appreciate that everyone at Aeco made a real effort to include us in the entire process. Our own ideas and suggestions were always welcomed to the table. The enthusiasm and positive vibe at Aeco worked contagious and sparked our interest for legal tech, design and innovation. 

Stepping into the Aeco philosophy, meant stepping out of our own comfort zone

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Thank you for the opportunity!

We wanted to give a special thanks to Thomas and Ruben, Aeco’s co-founders, for taking the time to share their vision, to make us feel part of the team and to help us grow as young professionals by giving constructive feedback. Thank you for the opportunity. We will really be missing our 9 a.m. talks in the “G-suite”!