New laws are passed and decisions announced without a break, which lawyers in law firms and companies must have at least the basics ready. They have to acquire the relevant specialist knowledge, for example for questions about climate protection, digitization or European integration – and currently about sanctions against Russia – in special training courses. If you are particularly interested in a specific subject area, you can train to become a specialist lawyer.
Specialist lawyers who have acquired particularly thorough knowledge in one or more of the 24 approved areas of law and who have passed an examination are obliged to attend an annual further training course of at least 15 hours. Not only because regular further training is a “basic legal obligation”, as the Federal Bar Association says. But also because the title of specialist lawyer awarded by the chamber can be revoked without proof of qualification. “Only in justified exceptional cases can the further training be made up for in the following year,” says Alexander Grantz, specialist lawyer for criminal law from Verden, who operates two legal further education portals. “But that’s really the absolute exception.”
However, the required 15 hours of further learning, of which a maximum of five hours can be spent in self-study, are only a piece of cake compared to the actual specialist lawyer training. There is no university degree to get there, but only by attending courses plus several hundred hours of relevant professional practice. Some decide to become a specialist lawyer for traffic law, others prefer criminal law or real estate law.
Many people are generally reluctant to ask about the special expertise of a lawyer. Grantz confirms this: “Very few clients ask how the lawyer thinks about further training.” He basically advises asking: How many cases of my kind have you dealt with?” Another important question: “How much experience do you have in this area?” It is not necessary to ask specialist lawyers. “Here the client can be sure that his legal adviser keeps himself professionally up to date. This is checked by the Bar Association. And very strict,” emphasizes Grantz.
“So far, the courses have mostly been face-to-face events,” says Christian Dahns, lawyer and managing director of the Federal Bar Association in Berlin. “But we’re seeing a lot more online offers now.” The training ends with a legal discussion in front of a committee made up of specialist lawyers. Those who pass may then demand higher fees for their specialist legal services. Before that, however, he has to dig into his own pocket: A specialist lawyer course costs up to 3,000 euros. Despite the effort, this further training is one of the most popular in the legal profession.
This is even “by far the most popular training,” Grantz notes. “Almost a third of all lawyers have qualified for this, most of them in family law and labor law. There are around 10,000 specialist lawyers in each of the two areas of law,” he explains. With his portal Rechtsanwalt-fortbildung.net he wants to give specialist lawyers guidance, with the platform reno-fortbildung.net he founded, on the other hand, he addresses paralegals – i.e. paralegals who support lawyers in the preparation of court hearings or company meetings, for example.
According to Grantz, a total of 165,680 lawyers were admitted in Germany on January 1, 2021 and 57,861 specialist lawyer titles had been awarded. And because all specialist lawyers have to undergo at least 15 hours of further training a year, there is a mandatory learning demand “of almost 868,000 hours a year. That makes the dimension clear”.
The “Legum Magister” degree and further training to become a mediator are also popular
The one to two-year LL.M. degree is timelessly popular. The abbreviation LL.M. stands for the Latin “Legum Magister”. The postgraduate degree can be acquired after the first or second state examination in law full-time or part-time in Germany and abroad. Similar to the title Fachanwalt, the LL.M. by specializing in a specific area of law.
The further training to become a mediator should be worthwhile, especially for business lawyers. Because with the worldwide increase in private arbitration courts, there is a growing need for professional mediators who support the parties to the dispute in finding a solution that is acceptable to all sides. Further training to become a certified mediator is offered by universities and mediation academies and includes at least 120 hours of teaching and training time. The high range of course costs from 2000 to 8000 euros makes serious interest a prerequisite for acquiring this qualification.
Paralegals work in law firms, corporate legal departments and government agencies. There they support the work of lawyers. A three-year dual vocational training course leads to the profession of paralegal, followed by in-depth courses to become a paralegal. Longer training courses qualify you to become a legal specialist, and a university degree to become a business economist for law. These specialists then take on responsible management functions in law firms, for example office management or client service.
Legal managers examine projects from a legal point of view. With their broader legal knowledge, they are on par with lawyers who have completed the first state examination. Certified notary specialists assume similar functions at the notary as legal specialists. It is also possible to do several years of further training to become a bailiff.
In order to stay up to date professionally after the vocational training, paralegals can continue their education in seminars and certificate courses. The spectrum of possible further training topics is broad and ranges from bookkeeping and fee and cost accounting to law firm organization and foreclosure. The regional bar associations as well as the local chambers of industry and commerce provide information on further training opportunities.
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But which providers are suitable for solid legal training? On the one hand, there are the local bar associations, mostly via outsourced seminar companies. In addition, the German Lawyers’ Academy, which belongs to the German Lawyers’ Association, and the non-profit German Lawyers’ Institute, which in turn belongs to the Federal Chamber of Lawyers and the Federal Chamber of Notaries. “There are also a large number of private seminar providers with face-to-face and online training courses lasting a few hours to a few months,” adds Grantz. You have to know: “The market is highly fragmented and confusing.”
One lawyer would like to acquire special qualifications in the field of family law, the other is particularly interested in transport and forwarding law, medical law, migration law or sports law. Digitization is also reflected in the range of further training courses for lawyers. Grantz has observed: “In addition to the classic IT training courses, the qualification to become a data protection officer is in high demand.” Companies would often outsource this function to specialist lawyers. “In general, the General Data Protection Regulation that came into force in 2018 is still reverberating,” notes the specialist lawyer. It has led to a large number of new legal activities and has produced, for example, the specialist lawyer for IT law.
The prospect of a higher income also drives lawyers to continue their education
Dahns from the German Federal Bar Association informs that there is even more demand than popular topics such as inheritance law or social law: “The lawyers are thinking about where they can open up new fields of activity. Where are there new target groups? How can I offer my services via the Internet?” Basically, the willingness of lawyers to learn is high: “One is always afraid of making a mistake. A liability judgment is a sharp sword.” Apart from that, the strong interest in a specialist area is often the main motivation for further training. He got the impression that “most passionate colleagues” are always learning new things.
Of course, further training also takes place at the workplace. Companies and law firms train the lawyers, trainee lawyers and interns they employ intensively in professional and personal areas of competence. At the large law firm CMS Germany, for example, the cross-departmental further training of the more than 600 professionals is coordinated from Berlin. “Further training is the responsibility of our business units,” explains Kristin Flade, Head of Personnel Development at CMS in Berlin. “For us, for example, there are topics such as leadership skills, adept handling of innovative, digital consulting products and the development of entrepreneurial thinking, which we would like to pass on to our young people across all locations and business areas as needed.” According to the human resources manager, every lawyer in the law firm spends a few days a year learning new things in such areas. The further training is valuable not only for young professionals, but also for the law firm. The interest of the newcomers is great: “When applying, they are almost always asked about it, and that’s right,” says Flade.