Reforms: Bill will allow wider range of multi-disciplinary work


German lawyers could lose their monopoly on the right to carry out legal work, if a proposed Legal Services Bill - currently before the country's parliament - is passed.



The latest bid to reform legal services in the EU, the Bill will redefine the reserved areas of legal practice, allowing non-lawyers to provide certain types of legal services to the public. It will also enable lawyers to co-operate and go into practice with a wider range of professionals than now, such as doctors.



German lawyers have enjoyed a statutory monopoly on providing legal services since 1935. However, there are already exceptions, which permit accountants and tax advisers to give legal advice to clients if it is connected with a matter on which they are advising.



Heike Lörcher, head of the Brussels office of Germany's federal bar, the Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer (BRAK), said: 'There are 140,000 lawyers in Germany and this change would make competition for work much fiercer. German lawyers would need to prepare for this.'



The German Bill and legal services reforms in England and Wales were among matters discussed in bilateral talks between BRAK and the Law Society last week.



BRAK has previously warned that English firms with non-lawyer shareholders would be 'inconsistent' with the requirements of German law and face a major problem if they wanted to operate in the country (see [2006] Gazette, 6 July, 1).



Catherine Baksi