November 2023: Having recently returned from Seoul we asked Kristina Rempel to look back on her overseas secondment. Here's what this Berlin Referendar had to say about her time in South Korea, including her personal development, professional growth and karaoke fun with colleagues.

1. It's an exciting challenge
The most exciting prospect of working overseas is the personal and professional challenge that you intentionally put yourself through. You must adapt to a new environment, workplace culture and cuisine. This process is very exciting and a little bit challenging at times.

2. Seoul is an incredible city
From day one, I was struck by the beautiful skyline, the marvelous Han River and was truly amazed by the mountains enclosing the city. But the hot and humid climate in August was a shock. As soon as the climate got cooler, I did a lot of sightseeing and visited food markets, where I tried a lot of new dishes. 

I spent many weekends hiking and admiring the beautiful views of the enchanting landscape. During the Chuseok holidays (also known as the Korean Thanksgiving Holiday), I visited the second-largest city in South Korea, Busan, and I flew to Osaka, Japan for a weekend.

3. Stepping out of your comfort zone enables you to grow
I knew that this secondment would help me improve various important 'soft skills' in my personal and professional life; for example, managing my naturally introverted personality. To thrive in a new team and society with a different cultural background, I needed to be more open, approachable and take the initiative at times. I also needed to rely on my English language skills at work and in my everyday life. 

4. You can learn a lot from being the minority within a different culture
My experience sensitized me even more to the cultural background of clients and people in my personal life. Going forward, I will be even more considerate regarding the influence of the ethnic origin on opinions and viewpoints to prevent misunderstandings. This was my first experience of being a foreigner and part of a national minority in society. It will advance my social skills to make other secondees and visitors from other countries feel more included, seen, and comfortable in the future.

5. There's a global White & Case culture
I think that the office culture and atmosphere was the same in both locations. It seems to me that the reasons for this are the shared Firm values and policies, and great exchange between the global teams. The office was visited by partners and associates from New York, Houston, Singapore and Melbourne. Social interactions at the office were respectful, professional and friendly. According to the Korean culture, it's very important to make other people feel comfortable, so I felt well taken care of and included. 

There were two different kinds of brief weekly meetings. While one was about the progress on deals and work-related topics, the other had a social focus. We would usually eat lunch or dinner with all the employees or do other social activities together, like singing karaoke!

6. A first-hand experience of cross-border work with an international team
One deal was a particular highlight, and had the chance to follow progress from the beginning and to help especially on the due diligence. It was especially interesting for me to observe how the team overcame deal-specific obstacles. 

One main obstacle was that the deal required knowledge of US entertainment and media law. So I had the chance to research a completely new legal field. The team trusted me to review a considerable number of relevant agreements, prepare the documentations and help to draft the legal due diligence report.

7. Three reflections on the overseas secondment
Over the course of the three months that I spent in Seoul, I improved and became more confident with using the English language in personal as well as professional settings. In addition, I started my secondment right after taking the German Second State Examination in law. Hence, I could mentally focus solely on my assignments at the Seoul office and didn't have to worry about upcoming exams. 

That meant that I had the chance to get a full impression of the work as an M&A lawyer on international transactions and to increase my knowledge of this area. In summary, I gained more confidence in myself and built upon this personal and professional experience.