Julian Grad

When I look back at my time at MCI...

…I think back to a beautiful and eventful, but unfortunately too short time in the end. Besides the fantastic views of the surroundings I could enjoy from the MCI, it brought me a broad economic and legal knowledge as well as new experiences and friendships. Often people talk about networks that are established there. However, this term lacks the emotional and friendly note that made my time at MCI so special. My studies enabled me to spend some time abroad in France and to gain new cultural experiences and learn a new language. When I look back to my years at MCI today, I don't think of a network that built me up, but of Florian, Anna, Frederik, Marina...

How did your studies prepare you for your current job?

The broad-based study program "International Business and Law" with a focus on law, language, economics and ethics has given me an interdisciplinary understanding with a holistic view of current market events. Instead of "business as usual", the MCI taught me to evaluate every situation with economic, legal, social and ethical glasses, to question things and to take nothing for granted. This economic and solution-oriented work paired with a social and ethical way of thinking help me today in dealing with the most different cultures from Japan to South Africa and on to Israel. An internship during my studies in Brussels enabled me to do intensive research on the lobbying practices of various interest groups in the European Union and gave me a sound basis for my master thesis on ethical regulations in EU law with regards to lobbying. In cooperation with FH-Prof. Dr. Markus Frischhut, LL.M., I published my master thesis in the chapter "Legal and Ethical Rules in EU Decision-Making: "Soft Law" for Targets and Actors of Lobbying" in the anthology "Lobbying in the European Union", published in February 2019 by Springer Verlag.