Legal Service Traineeship

Community Plant Variety Office

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) in Angers invites applications for 1 traineeship of 12 months (from 1st October 2026 to 30th September 2027).

The CPVO is a European Union agency which manages the European Union system of plant variety rights covering the 27 Member States.  

Detailed information about the CPVO can be found at http://www.cpvo.europa.eu/.

Profile / Duties

The Legal Service of the CPVO brings together a multicultural team providing legal advice on the regulatory, institutional and contractual framework governing the EU plant variety rights system established under the European Union. The Service addresses questions concerning the development, interpretation, and application of the EU framework for Community Plant Variety Rights, as well as the CPVO’s legal position vis-à-vis other EU institutions, Member States, examination offices and international partners. The Service also provides legal advice to CPVO colleagues and management and represent the Office in litigation and dispute resolution proceedings before administrative and judicial bodies. 

The CPVO designs traineeships for motivated young professionals eager to develop their skills in a stimulating environment where initiative is encouraged and contributions are recognised and valued. 

The Legal Service trainee will be fully immersed in the work of the Legal Service from day one. After an induction period to present the Office’s activities, internal procedures, and IT tools, the trainee will be involved in the team’s daily work and asked to contribute to a wide range of legal tasks. 

Thanks to the team’s compact and collaborative structure, the trainee will work in close collaboration with the Legal Advisors and will quickly assume a meaningful role, gaining hands-on experience in all aspects of the team’s activities.

In this role, the trainee will:

• provide assistance in conducting legal research and drafting legal advice to other Units of the Office;
• contribute to drafting decisions in legal proceedings, including objections, nullity and cancellation cases;
• attend Office committees’ meetings and support related preparatory work;
• support work related to Board of Appeal and proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union;
• assist in the preparation of seminars, training sessions and presentations on plant variety protection and Intellectual Property related matters.

General Conditions

To be considered eligible, applicants must satisfy the following requirements on the closing date for the submission of applications:

• Be a national of an EU Member State;
• Enjoy full rights as a citizen;
• Have a university degree of at least 3 years of study (minimum a bachelor);
• Have a thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the European Union and satisfactory knowledge of another official language of the EU.

Candidates who have previously completed a traineeship in another EU institution are eligible to apply.

Qualifications

The successful candidate must: 

• Hold a university degree in law or related field and a post-graduate Master degree in Intellectual Property Law, obtained at the latest in September 2026;
• Be proficient in the MS Office package and have a good understanding of IT tools;
• Demonstrate excellent communication skills in English, both written and oral, and a good command of at least one another official EU language;
• Be comfortable working in a multicultural environment where English is the main working language;
• Be able to work autonomously and demonstrate strong attention to details.

In addition, the following qualifications will be considered assets:

• Having a  good command of German, Dutch or French;
• Being familiar with implementing AI tools in daily tasks and possessing a good understanding of AI functionalities;
• Previous work experience in the domain of intellectual property law, either in specialised IP Law Firms or other IP Institutions/Agencies;
• Knowledge of the Agrifood sector.

Professional Experience

None required.

Additional Requirements

None.

Contractual Conditions

- The successful candidate will be offered a traineeship of 12 months (not renewable).

- Grant: trainees will be awarded a monthly traineeship grant, equal to 25% of basic salary for EU officials in grade AD5 step 1 as of 31.12.2025 plus the correction coefficient for France (for information: 1.747€ in 2026).

Recruitment procedure

Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview via Microsoft Teams and to complete a short-written assignment designed to assess their English drafting skills and reasoning abilities.

For applications to be valid, candidates must be made through the CPVO electronic recruitment portal which can be found on the CPVO web site: Recruitment | CPVO

Incomplete applications, and applications not sent via this tool, will automatically be excluded from the selection procedure.

The CPVO contacts candidates via email and will only use the email address provided during the registration of the candidate's profile. Therefore, candidates should regularly check their Spam folder, as CPVO cannot be held accountable for emails that may end up in that folder.