Lawyer; Recognition of foreign professional qualifications

• Submit an application.

The application for the determination of an equivalent professional qualification can be submitted to any examination office within the Federal Republic of Germany responsible for taking the aptitude test, but not if several are held at the same time.

Joint Legal Examination Offices are located in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart.

• The Examination Office will confirm receipt of the application within one month and, if necessary, indicate whether any documents or documents are missing.
• The Examination Office will decide on the application no later than 4 months after receipt of all necessary documents.
• The Examination Office will require you to take an aptitude test if

• your training related to subjects that are significantly different from those required for the practice of the profession of lawyer in Germany, and
• these differences are not compensated for in any other way, in particular by professional practice or further training.

• The aptitude test consists of a written and an oral part.
• Two supervisory papers must be completed as written examinations.
• The oral examination consists of a short presentation and an examination interview.
• The Examination Office will issue a confirmation of the successful completion of the aptitude test. A failed aptitude test may be repeated twice.

• You can apply for the determination of an equivalent professional qualification as a prerequisite for admission to the bar in Germany if:
• you have completed professional training that entitles you to direct access to the profession of European lawyer and
• you have completed more than half of the minimum training period in member states of the European Union or in other contracting states of the European Economic Area or Switzerland, or
• You can prove that you have practised the profession of European lawyer for at least three years if less than half of the minimum training period was completed in a member state of the European Union, another contracting state of the European Economic Area or Switzerland.

An aptitude test is required if your training related to subjects that differ significantly from those required for the practice of the profession of lawyer in Germany and these differences are not compensated for in any other way, in particular by professional practice or further training measures.

• Application for the determination of an equivalent professional qualification for admission to the bar (in German),
• Proof of identity
• a curriculum vitae in tabular form (in German),
• proof of eligibility for direct access to the profession of European lawyer,
• proof that more than half of the minimum training period has been completed in member states of the European Union or in other contracting states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area or Switzerland, or a certificate of at least three years of professional practice in one of these states,
• a declaration that the application for the determination of an equivalent professional qualification was not submitted at the same time to another examination office, whether and, if so, to which examination offices an application has already been submitted or an aptitude test has been taken (in German),
• where applicable, proof that differences between the subjects covered by the training and the subjects required for the practice of the profession of lawyer in Germany have been fully compensated for by professional practice or further training.

• All relevant documents that are not available in German must be submitted with a German translation. Translations must be carried out by translators who are publicly appointed or authorised.

The deadlines are different in the Joint Legal Examination Offices .

Objections to the evaluation of the examination performance.

If you have been admitted to the oral examination, you must submit the objections to the assessment of the written supervisory papers to the Examination Office within one month of the announcement of the examination decision at the latest, and the objections to the assessment of the oral examination immediately after the announcement of the examination decision. Objections to the assessment of the written supervisory papers must be substantiated within two months of the announcement of the examination decision at the latest, and objections to the assessment of the oral examination must be substantiated within one month of the announcement of the examination decision at the latest (Section 24 (2) EuRAG).

If you are not admitted to the oral examination, you must submit your objections to the assessment of the written supervisory papers to the Examination Office within one month of the announcement of the examination decision at the latest and justify them within two months of its announcement (Section 24 (3) EuRAG).

Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice

The text was automatically translated based on the German content.