New student research assistant: Ann-Sofie Embrechts

Ann-Sofie Embrechts (° 2003) is a Master of Laws student at Ghent University. She obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree in 2024 (magna cum laude). During the first semester of her master’s programme, she studied at the University of Copenhagen with a focus on EU competition law and life science law. In the summer of 2025, she attended a summer school at the University of Stockholm, where she specialized in fashion and intellectual property.

Ann-Sofie is currently writing her master’s thesis under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Stanislas Adam, examining the role of non-purely economic factors in EU merger control. This semester, she joins GIPLI as a student research assistant, where she will work on developing a research proposal for a PhD application under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Simon Geiregat. Her main academic interests lie in intellectual property law, EU competition law and life science law.

The mandates for student research assistants are a long-running initiative by the Ghent University Faculty of Law and Criminology, whereby our top students are invited for a short deep dive into the daily life of a PhD scholar. It allows last-year law students to conduct research on a topic of law of their interest, supervised by a professor of their choice. The mandate exists in a 12-day salaried position at the Faculty. During their mandate, candidates are expected to prepare a research proposal jointly with their supervisor.