At the head of one of Eurojuris' most active chapters, Jérôme Depondt identified the key element for a successful network: it must be a common, long-term project. Let's analyse this idea with him...
“A network functions at its best when it has a project for the future.” After a conversation with Jérôme Depondt (EJ France), this statement appears almost as a motto for his national chapter. In the last two years, the seven members of his board have done a lot of work. “We made a charter, and then an action plan to undertake it, with goals at three to five years term. This is what makes a network alive... In the past, we had a project: establishing guidelines to improvise the way our lawfirms work, but once it was done we weren't careful to feed this project again, and we saw our network progressively vanishing. This will not happen again: now we regularly put new content in our projects. As soon as you bring an innovative project, all the members who used to withdraw suddenly come back! It also attracts new members”.
Thus, for Jérôme, a network must be more than a meeting place. “Meeting people is great, but it is not enough: this must be a place for projects.”
In practice, what have some of these projects been? One focuses on certification. In France, CNB (Conseil National des Barreaux – an institution gathering all the bars in the country) delivers certifications to lawyers under certain criteria. “We support our members in obtaining these certifications”, Jérôme says, “and to go further, we are working on our own labels, which would come on top of the certificates”. Other projects regard the network's visibility, with a graphic identity and so on. “If we are not well-known outside,” Jérôme adds, “then we don't exist. Big lawfirms are well-known, even though some of their members don't know each other: in a way, they are a network. We can do as well as they do”.
Last but not least, EJ France remains a place to meet. “We established groups around a common business sector. For example, we created a group of lawyers specialised in Worker's rights, and oriented towards the logistics sector. This group meets with labor unions, federations of transportation companies, etc. This is just one example of such groups”.
More details will be given by Jérôme at the next EJ France congress, between January 30th and February 1st 2014 in Berlin – the French Eurojuris chapter organises its congress abroad once every two years, in an effort to reach foreign members – another occasion to share views on their projects.
