IP & Art

Here's how to get a lawyer's license in Germany: If you pass the first bar exam at the same time as graduating from law school, you will go through a probationary period of about two and a half years. And you have to take the exam again and pass it before you can become a lawyer. The courts are basically regional and high courts in each state, and only the Supreme Court at the federal level. In addition, each state district and high court announces the hiring of judges, and the judges are appointed in the form of open recruitment. And unlike Korea, judges do not have a concept of rotational positions. Long-term service in the local and high courts of the specific state in which they are hired. The presiding judge is also filled in the form of open recruitment whenever vacancies with judges are available.

In such a system, there is essentially no room for public courtesy to intervene. Because judges have a guaranteed retirement age and serve for a long time in a specific court, it is said that exchanges between judges are not as frequent as we do. And since the vacant judge seats are elected in the form of open recruitment, it is difficult to create a distorted bond between the former and the succeeding judges. And it is fundamentally difficult to form an “elite cartel” centered on the motives of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, as in Korea.

Germany is also said to be reluctant to work as a lawyer after retiring as a judge. This seems to be because they perceive that it is unfair to use or utilize that position after serving as a judge and change their position as a lawyer.

Unlike France, Germany entered the international legal market from an early age because of its superior English proficiency. And around the opening of the German legal market, there were many cases of local law firms being merged with foreign law firms. Although there are negative views on this, internationalization of law firms in the global era is probably natural, and furthermore, there are positive factors in terms of international competitiveness.

And what is interesting is the fact that the social status of notaries is high. Nearly the best partner lawyers act as notaries. This seems to be because notaries act almost like judges. If the opportunity arises, we would like to take the opportunity to examine this aspect a little more. Recently, Korea has also adopted the German system, and there is a movement to institutionalize the notary public so that it has dignity and authority as a person with a status equivalent to that of a judge. In the United States, on the other hand, notary public is different. In the United States, notary public is so common that it is easy to become a notary public, even if you are not a legal expert, with the recommendation of two judges.

The German lawyer industry is also complaining that it has the same difficulties as Korea because of the large number of lawyers. Although there are more lawyers than in Korea, it is still comparatively small compared to the United States. For example, in terms of specialization, I think that lawyers are relatively lacking. From the perspective of judicial consumers, if the number of lawyers is small, they cannot afford to meet their legal needs.