“I’ve been told a lot about meritocracy and that’s what motivated me. To really see how far we could go.” Karim M’ziani, 26, wants to go far. For that, he works there and accumulates successes. The latest? As recently as last week, when he found out he had passed his New York bar entrance exam as an international lawyer.
“When I found out I got it, I was really amazed and it was a explosion of joy, including in my family. I was relieved, happy and, for the first time, proud of me“, reacts the lawyer.
But before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to exercise his talents as a lawyer, Karim M’ziani fondly recalls his childhood in Montargis.
In Montargis, the Gambetta school will be closed and sold to finance another school group
He thanks his teachers
Born at Amilly hospital in 1995, he joined the benches of the Pasteur school then those of the Chinchon college in Montargis. Many teachers accompany the young man on the path to success. Today, he thanks them.
“In college, my Spanish teacher, Madame Couillaud, made me appreciate the foreign languages. Monsieur Aulnier, professor of French, Latin and Greek, gave me a taste for reading and convinced me of the importance of express yourself well in writing and orally. “
School holds a primordial place in Karim’s life.
“I was not part of a privileged environment where I had all the keys to reach the profession in which I am now.”
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His parents are Comorians. His mother is a maintenance worker at the city hospital and his father is a delivery man.
A photo of Karim with his father during his graduation ceremony for his master’s degree in European and international business law at Dauphine. This took place in December 2018 at the Council of State. Credit Karim M’ziani
Karim a la dual Franco-Comorian nationality. A double identity which is the basis of its philosophy of life: “African culture, without generalizing, conveys the will to act together to go further, to be a group.” A value instilled by his father, who encourages his son to always go further.
In addition to college, Karim M’ziani invests in the life of the city. He thus integrates in Montargis the municipal children’s council then is elected young mayor, for two successive terms.
The boy, fifth in a family of seven, has the sense of responsibility. From his exercise on the municipal youth council, he retained his election as a child-councilor and this “strange feeling of being propelled into the spotlight overnight”. The children’s flea market and its first municipal council with its “power dynamics” were significant for him.
Cumulation of mandates
“In 2008, I was in fifth grade, class delegate, mayor-child, member of the board of directors at the college and junior general councilor in the Department. The multiple mandates, I know!” The lawyer laughs at it, who when he can, indulges in one of his passions: dance.
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Karim on stage in Buenos Aires, Argentina, dancing hip hop. He is also a big fan of Cuban salsa. Credit Karim M’ziani.
In high school in the Forest, he graduated in 2013, thanks, again, to dedicated teachers. At this moment, he hesitates between a career in medicine or in law. Tempted by the profession of psychiatrist, his heart will finally choose international law.
“I already spoke several languages (English, Spanish, Mandarin) in high school and I had dreamed for a long time of a career across the world. Which would not have been possible in medicine. It must also be said that I like to challenge the system and the rules. “
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He then began his legal studies in specializing in a master’s degree in international lawthe. During these years, he took every opportunity to travel. He did an exchange year in China, then a semester in Argentina in a law firm.
In 2018, back in France, he took a gap year in order to be able to integrate American firms in Paris. “I see that the profession of lawyer suits me more with international files.”
Residents of Loiret are mobilizing for equal access to emergency care
scholarship of Excellence
Karim M’ziani obtains an excellence scholarship to integrate Duke University in the United States to specialize in dispute resolution between states, businesses and institutions. An entire program.
Professional photo of Karim in his office in an American office in Paris. Credit Karim M’ziani.
Once again in France, he worked in another Parisian firm and then joined a school to successfully prepare for the competitive examination to accede to the New York bar. Now the lawyer, who is fluent in four languages, still has to work for two years in France before realizing another dream and seeing his office moved to Washington.
In the meantime, Karim N’ziani lives in shared accommodation in the capital with his best friend met on the benches of the Montargoise school, which, him, undertook studies… of psychiatrist.
Cécile Kettanjian and Sylvain Riollet
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