Weinquin, took over from Sylvestre as president of the Young Bar Association on 15 September. A partner with Christian Hansen at Hansen & Weinquin since 2017, he became one of the first presidents to come from the bar of Diekirch (which has about 50 lawyers, compared to 2,400 for the Luxembourg bar).

In a joint interview with Paperjam, Delano's sister publication, the new and outgoing presidents talk about the role of the Young Bar Association, the achievements of the past year and the challenges of the one to come.

What made you decide to get involved in the Young Bar Association?

Denis Weinquin: The defence of young colleagues! I have always been involved, first for the students, then as a representative of the bar of Diekirch. So this is the logical continuation of that.

What is your role?

D. W.: The president of the Young Bar Association is the equivalent of the President of the Bar Association. And the role of the Young Bar Association is to represent young lawyers. Lawyers are not considered 'young' by age, but by the year in which they are sworn in--and they remain so until the 11th year after swearing in.

We are there to defend the interests of young people within the Conseil de l’Ordre--because the council represents young and old alike, employers and employees, so conflicts of interest are possible.

Philippe Sylvestre: We also organise events, such as the welcome drink in September, or sporting events. It's about team building, creating a dynamic.

In addition to that, the bar has now delegated lifelong learning to you.

P. S.: This represents 23 to 25 conferences per year. The bar decides on the content of the conferences, and we take care of the organisation--we have a well-functioning machine. In return, the Bar Association provides us with staff and its IT platform--because the Young Bar Association committee has no infrastructure. As for the premises, we have those of the Maison de l’Avocat.

How do you work with the bar council?

P. S.: We work together, hand in hand. Even if our directions are sometimes different when theirs are not in the interest of young people. But there is never any conflict.

D. W.: Absolutely, one cannot function without the other. Even more so since last year and the delegation of continuing education.

But you do sometimes have different positions?

D. W.: Yes, we have different points of view on some issues. This is the case with the issue of income: we want to introduce a minimum income. A questionnaire was organised on working conditions: income, exploitation, harassment.

P. S.: Taken as a whole, the results were satisfactory. But when filtered, they were less satisfactory. In the small firms, 25% of employees earn less than the minimum income. This is particularly true of trainee lawyers. It is the large firms that bring up the average.

D. W.: But a minimum income is far from being unanimously accepted by the bar. A trainee's boss does not necessarily want a minimum income to be introduced. However, it is up to the Bar Association to prepare internal regulations. And it is up to us to act to make things happen.

What are the strong points--and not so strong points--for the profession in Luxembourg?

D. W.: In my opinion, there are two strong points: a great wealth of languages, which gives us an international clientele. And we have strong know-how in areas such as company law and tax law.

P. S.: In addition, adaptations are very quick in the country, especially in the context of transposing directives. And the paths are short: when a problem arises, you can very quickly speak to the right person to find a solution.

Do you think the efforts to digitise and modernise are sufficient?

D. W.: Sometimes changes take a little too long. We had to have covid to get the justice system digitised, overnight. There is still room for modernisation, but it is underway and well on its way.

Isn't the backlog of cases a problem?

D. W.: It can be a problem in some areas. For example, in commerce: in the first instance, it takes a year or more to present a case, then more than a year for the judgment to take place, so it can take up to three years in total. That's a very long time for the litigant.

A major challenge in the profession today?

P. S.: Bureaucratisation: procedures are becoming complicated. There are a lot of constraints that cost money.

D. W.: Yes, there are more laws, more directives, more anti-money laundering obligations, etc. The profession is relatively restrictive. It remains a profession that attracts people, but it is a difficult one.

P. S.: That said, the reform of civil procedure is there to simplify things. But it's brand new, we haven't seen the consequences yet.

How would you sum up the past year for the Young Bar Association?

P. S.: We had to catch up with the covid train, which was already underway, and adapt, particularly with the Webex conferences--with 250 to 300 digital participants--and the delivery of catering kits for events.

Above all, we did housekeeping, by professionalising our conferences. There was also the success of the eloquence competition. And the launch of a new website--the old one was ten years old.

Generally speaking, we have shown that we are there for the substance, not just the form, especially with the increase in the number of conferences--we had the reputation of being there only to organise parties.

And the challenges for the coming year?

D. W.: It really is the recovery. With covid, it was about adapting and working on the academic aspects. But we are also here for the networking: we want people to meet up again, to create links, because this also facilitates their work. There is also the whole aspect of representation abroad vis-à-vis other bars. And we are going to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our administration on 4 February at the BNL.

Women are very present in the legal profession. But there have only been two women presidents of the Young Bar Association in the last 10 years. How do you explain this?

P. S.: The committee of the Young Bar Association, which is composed of 14 members, has parity, with 50% women. But it is sometimes more difficult to become vice-president: you have to have been a member of the committee, you have to have seniority. However, more and more women are becoming judges in the meantime.

D. W.: Next year, the president, Géraldine Mersch, will be a woman. It is not because she is a woman that she was elected. We stand for equality, but not for positive discrimination.

But sexism exists. How do you fight it?

D. W.: For example, for International Women's Rights Day, we are organising a conference on 25 November, with the non-profit organisation Passerelle.

P. S.: But this is not the only problem in terms of representation. We are trying to have a mixed committee in terms of gender, but also in terms of nationality. At the Luxembourg bar, we are approximately 25% Luxembourgers. However, we only have 30% foreigners on the committee. It is still difficult to find non-Luxembourgers who want to join the Young Bar Association.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.