Giulia Bretel de Simone and Yanis Djibrine Peterman, winners of the 2024-2025 Gide Scholarship

Giulia Bretel de Simone: I’ve had the opportunity to study in an international environment. Having earned my general baccalaureate with the Italian international option, I decided to apply to Sciences Po because of its diverse student body, the rich, multidisciplinary and complex courses it offers and the opportunity to gain a broad-based understanding of the social sciences. I spent the first two years of my Bachelor’s on the Reims campus, where I was able to specialise in political humanities in the North America programme. During my years in Reims, I developed a strong commitment to migrants’ rights. That’s when I discovered the law as a tool for protecting individuals’ rights and, more specifically, the rights of the most vulnerable. So I decided to further my understanding of law at the University of California Berkeley during my third year abroad. I also discovered legal writing when I joined the Undergraduate Law Review at UC Berkeley. These experiences helped me to see the law as an evolving field and a tool for maintaining an essential social balance. That’s why I chose to continue my studies with a Master in Economic Law at Sciences Po.

Yanis Djibrine Peterman: I am currently in my first year of a Master in Economic Law at Sciences Po. After a scientific baccalaureate at a high school in the Vendée, I did year one of a Bachelor of Law with European Studies at the University of Nantes.

I then went on to study at Sciences Po Strasbourg, out of a critical interest in the European Union, a desire to take the mathematics option offered in the first year, and also because the economics courses there are exceptional. Alongside my undergraduate degree at Sciences Po Strasbourg, I earned a Bachelor of Economics in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Strasbourg.

I did my third year at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City. During that unforgettable experience, for the third year of my Bachelor of Economics I wrote a research paper on “Illicit financial flows and economic development in Central Africa”. This final essay played a fundamental role in my choice of Master’s programme. I explored topics to do with financial crime and economic regulation. I also took a more targeted look at extractive industries in Central Africa. As well as the economic and security issues involved, I focused on certain legal aspects, such as the procedures for granting operating licences and the laws on tracing mining products.

Giulia Bretel de Simone: The scholarship application consists of a CV, cover letter, provisional budget, academic transcript and financial statements. A few weeks after submitting my application, I received an email inviting me to an interview. It went really well. Five lawyers from Gide were there, along with two representatives from Sciences Po. They were very kind and asked questions about my past experiences and internships, my career plans and my gap year. I got the reply two days later.

This scholarship, which includes both financial aid and an internship opportunity at Gide, is a tremendous support for my education. It will allow me to concentrate entirely on my studies and my personal projects without needing to hold down a student job. Furthermore, this opportunity is an ideal gateway into the field of business law, with an excellent firm that will be able to share valuable expertise and prepare me in the best possible way for professional practice.

Yanis Djibrine Peterman: A while after submitting my application, I received an email inviting me to an interview. The meeting took place at the offices of Gide Loyrette Nouel. I was mainly asked about how I wanted to use the scholarship, my career goals and my gap year.

The Gide scholarship will be a great help, as it will enable me to approach my Master’s years with real peace of mind. I’m very glad to be able to support my family, some of whom live in Chad, a beautiful country but a tough one. I feel I'm able to honour my responsibilities. I now have the freedom to focus all my efforts on my academic and professional ambitions.

Apart from the financial aspect, a six-month internship with a firm of this calibre is a great opportunity. I’ll be rubbing shoulders with talented lawyers and getting an initial insight into the careers that I aspire to.

Giulia Bretel de Simone: Because of my dual French-Italian nationality and my international profile, international business law is the branch of private law that intrigues me most. In business law, you get to study complex, challenging cases that involve juggling different jurisdictions in an international environment. Arbitration and corporate criminal law are two areas that particularly interest me and in which I would like to do my internships during my gap year. I'm interested in arbitration because of its unique approach to dispute resolution, avoiding recourse to state institutions and offering an alternative to the conventional justice system. Meanwhile, corporate criminal law fascinates me because it sits at the crossroads between the business world, governed by economic and strategic logics, and the criminal justice system, which is concerned with preserving public order and safeguarding the morality of commercial practices.

Finally, I’d like to add that one of the things that attracts me to the legal profession is the importance of orality. I think that the ability to persuade, to adapt one’s discourse and to structure reasoning in a clear and convincing way gives a human and dynamic dimension to the profession. So I’d like to follow up my gap year with a second-year Master’s specialisation in Economic Litigation and Arbitration, or Global Business Law and Governance, with a view to sitting the CRFPA law exam at the end of the programme.

Once again, I’d like to thank Gide and Sciences Po for this opportunity, which has bolstered my confidence in my professional future!

Yanis Djibrine Peterman: From an academic point of view, my goal is to do the second year of my Master’s specialising in Economic Litigation and Arbitration, or Business, Markets and Regulations at Sciences Po. Career-wise, I have no doubts about my medium-term goal: I want to become a lawyer.

Practising as a corporate lawyer will bring together my legal training with the issues that drive me. While retaining an interest in the EU, I would ideally like to work on issues concerning the African continent, and if the opportunity arises, the Central African region.

I firmly believe that contributing to the legal structuring of financial transactions is a direct way of working towards economic and human development. However, this necessarily entails taking into account the challenges of compliance, in order to maintain an ethical and responsible approach. It also means working closely with public institutions and stakeholders, which satisfies my keen interest in public affairs.

With this in mind, I want to find out more about regional legal systems in Africa, in particular those of CEMAC and ECOWAS. At the moment, I’m interested in the energy and natural resource industry, because it’s a highly strategic sector from every point of view (economic, political, ecological, social, etc.). Nonetheless, I am keen to maintain a generalist position and a cross-disciplinary approach, so that I can understand the business law profession in its entirety.