Sabrina Frank: How curiosity, courage and a network took a Freshfields associate to the top
How a first-generation graduate with a passion for language and law worked her way to a general counsel role she once told herself she was not ready for.
There's a thread running through Sabrina Frank's life — a persistent pull toward the unfamiliar. It's there in the career moves: different cities, different countries, different practice areas. It's there in the travel choices: always off the beaten path, always somewhere that draws puzzled questions of "why?" from friends and colleagues. And it's there in the hobbies — someone who was nervous to start driving for many years, yet was quick to take up kitesurfing. "The really difficult thing is to do everything at once," she says, "which makes it so beautiful, because you can't think about anything else when kitesurfing. You can forget all your to-do lists." Twelve years after qualifying as a Freshfields associate, Sabrina Frank is now in a role she never set out to achieve: General Counsel at idealo internet GmbH. This is her story.
A first in the family
Sabrina grew up in Pforzheim, southwest Germany, the daughter of Croatian parents who arrived in Germany in the 1960s. The first in her family to earn a university degree, she was raised bilingual from birth — and languages came easily. So did travel. "I think my love for languages and travel kind of steered me into the international environment that a firm like Freshfields offers," she reflects.
Her path to Freshfields began in a university seminar room in 2008, when a partner from the Frankfurt office came to deliver a session on negotiations. When Sabrina finished her presentation, she had a job offer: a student researcher role. "I guess he found my presentation convincing," she says with characteristic understatement. Working part time at Freshfields to fund her doctorate, Sabrina eventually undertook her traineeship — and shopped around. She wasn't persuaded by the alternatives. "There were an incredible number of smart, driven, funny people at Freshfields. They were working on really fascinating mandates — that's why I chose Freshfields."
Football World Cup and what came next
Sabrina began her career in Frankfurt's dispute resolution team, and it was an exciting time to be there. She worked on investigations, litigation and arbitration cases. One of her most exciting mandates was for the German Football Association, working on the investigation regarding the 2006 Football World Cup — a case that had her poring over decades of old football files and received media attention in Germany and abroad. A mini-secondment to the New York office rounded out the experience.
After more than three years in Frankfurt, the pull toward something new proved impossible to resist. Her next move combined two changes at once — relocating to a new office and joining a different practice group, leaving dispute resolution to pursue her other passion: antitrust.
Her time in Brussels left a deep impression. She recalls submitting her first merger notification at the European Commission and the particular magic of the Brussels office floor — where she could hear many different languages being spoken at once. Among them were English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Croatian and Greek, reflecting the rich cultural diversity that surrounded her.
Although the relocation represented a clear break at the time, the Brussels office, a new team focusing on tech mandates and Sabrina’s prior disputes experience, proved to be the perfect launching pad for what came next.
The network that opens doors
Sabrina's move in-house and back to Germany, this time Berlin, was driven by a desire to bring together the two areas she loved most — antitrust and dispute resolution. "In the end, what helped me get my foot in the door was my network." Axel Springer, a long-standing Freshfields client, was looking for a Legal Counsel. "Having Freshfields on my résumé certainly helped me get in, not least given the high number of other Freshfields alumni already there." Sabrina spent more than seven years at Axel Springer, contributing her expertise in antitrust and litigation cases, honing her in-house skills and broadening her legal range, before moving to idealo — also part of the Axel Springer family.
Another important lesson in her career has been the value of networking. She encourages everyone to push past the discomfort many people may feel about it. “Not only do you learn new points of view, but it can also lead to referrals for mandates or new roles”. Today, Sabrina regularly speaks at events and international conferences. The Freshfields connection also helped open doors in this respect, "It was particular current and former Freshfields people that encouraged me to speak publicly a few years ago."
The German phrase that unlocked Sabrina's ambition
For most of her career, Sabrina didn't see herself as a future General Counsel. "I always had this feeling that I could only give advice if I have researched everything on a specific matter." What changed was watching other General Counsels up close and having great role models around her to learn from. With experience came recognition of the truth in the German idiom: die kochen auch nur mit Wasser — "they also only cook with water." The closest English equivalent: everyone puts their trousers on one leg at a time. The insight was simple but liberating. No one has all the answers. You just have to be willing to try.
For someone so naturally on the move, it's perhaps surprising that Sabrina has stayed in Berlin longer than anywhere else. The reason is family, where she has found stillness. Juggling the top legal role at idealo with raising a family hasn't been without its daily challenges, but she shares what helps: networks, role models and people around you who share your struggles – not least a husband who supports her career in every respect. She is thrilled that there are more female role models in the profession today — and that rings true at Freshfields too, where women have accounted for more than 40% of recent Partner promotions.
The thread, of course, keeps pulling. And Sabrina's advice to anyone just starting out echoes everything her own life has demonstrated, "You have to have a full and rounded life in order to be successful. So go out and experience different things, different sectors. Travel — see what you enjoy and see what you're good at." From the small town of Pforzheim to the top of the legal function at a Berlin tech company, Sabrina Frank's career is proof that the thread, however unexpected its direction, always leads somewhere worth going.