• Bérénice Weill, a former student at the Faculty of Law of Montpellier, has taken over the reins of the Student Legal Library, a veritable institution.

  • This shop, where books have been sold for almost a century, has been transformed into a law bookstore since the 1980s, by the previous owner.

  • A challenge, at the time of Amazon?

    Law textbooks, “we want to see them before, we want to leaf through them” before buying them, assures Bérénice Weill.

Rue de l'Université, in Montpellier (Hérault), the Student Legal Library is a veritable institution.

This small shop, where books have been sold for almost a century, specialized in law in the 1980s. Since then, future lawyers, trained just a stone's throw from here, at the faculty, and locals flock there to buy their Codes and manuals.

But if time seems to have stopped in this bookstore, something has changed in recent weeks: the owner.

Bérénice Weill, a former law school student, took over the reins of the shop.

And it is, a little, thanks to the Covid-19.

Graduated in Master 2 Environmental Law in 2014, she used her Codes in a consulate in Mexico, at the Court of Appeal of Guyana, in a town hall, then in a

Legal tech

start-up .

Then, "for pleasure, but also for work", the young woman embarked on tourism, as a travel planner (travel organizer).

When the pandemic broke out, “it stopped everything.

Then the regulations changed all the time, it was not pleasant, neither for us, nor for the customers”, confides Bérénice Weill.

The former owner is "delighted"

She then learned that the bookstore from her student years was for sale.

“I knew the faculty, the professors, the neighborhood, the bookstore… I wanted to get involved in something related to law.

I wanted to have my business, my business.

And the idea of ​​working among books appealed to me a lot.

The former owner, of course, was delighted that her shop remained a bookstore, and did not become a bank or a snack bar.

“I would have stayed until it was sold as a bookstore!

smiled the one who had been running this business since 1985. “I'm delighted!

»

Especially since betting on the book at Amazon time, it may seem, at first glance, damn daring.

But if students and lawyers are loyal to the bookstore, it is, of course, for the advice that we offer them.

In duet with Séraphim Herbillon, the other bookseller of the Bérénice Weill shop ensures: “Our big advantage is that we are both lawyers, confides the new owner.

We both went to law school.

We know each other »

“The Codes are a working tool for a lawyer.

Like the hammer for a workman”

And the law books, “we want to see them first, we want to leaf through them.

Students sometimes spend ten or even fifteen minutes choosing between several.

“For the same subject, there may be five or six textbooks, which may all have the same title, continues Séraphim Herbillon.

On Amazon, we only see the cover page, and the back cover.

And that's all.

Nothing, or almost, on the structure of the works.

As for digital books, they are still not widespread in the law.

And anyway, "dematerialized law books are complicated to work with," continues the bookseller.

The Codes are a working tool for a lawyer.

Like the hammer for a workman.

Having it on paper is much better.

As for textbooks, students can leaf through them, highlight them…”

The new owner of the Student Law Library has another great challenge to take up: the computerization of the shop, she confides, sitting in front of a magnificent old-fashioned cash register.

“All the inventory, we did it by hand.

All that there!

she smiles, pointing to her stall.

She wants to bring the bookstore up to date, while "keeping, of course, its old spirit, which is very popular".

Books

The French will be able to elect their "favorite book" with France Télévisions and the BBC

Lille

Lille: Mythical Lille bookstore, the Furet du Nord celebrates its 100th anniversary

  • Library

  • Student

  • Occitania

  • Languedoc Roussillon

  • Montpellier

  • Books

  • Straight