Our scholars 2020 – Isabel Arantes

What is your legal background, your current occupation and country of work?
My name is Isabel Luzia Silva Arantes. I am a 29 years old lawyer, working at a private office in Barcelos in the district of Braga, about 40 km from Porto, Portugal.
This month I am about to finish a post-graduate course about Intellectual Property at the Law School of the University of Lisbon.

How do you use European law in your current work?
I use European law in my work on a regular basis because the office where I work we have some clients with small to medium companies working in other EU States. Lately several cases of IP law have occurred, such as trademark law and IP licensing.

What was your motivation for attending this particular event?
Despite my current job as a young lawyer in Portugal, it is my goal to work abroad in another EU member state. I really enjoy the EU law perspective and regret that there’s not enough focus on this here in Portugal. Also, I would like to have better economic and career perspectives, and in Portugal it is difficult to achieve a higher pay level.

How did you benefit from the scholarship?
This intense week of international training provided me with deep knowledge about European law so I have learned a lot about IP law.
I really enjoyed the EU law perspective on which, regretfully, there’s no enough focus in Portugal.”
If it wasn’t for this scholarship, I wouldn’t have been able to do the course, because of its high cost by Portuguese standards, even without to the travel to Trier.
I’m very thankful for this incredible opportunity and I already joined the Friends of ERA Association.