Representatives of the judicial and legal professions in Europe gathered in Brussels on 2 December 2022 for the ๐๐จ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐บ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ด๐ฎ๐น ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ณ๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ to analyse why it is becoming more difficult to attract young people to a career in law and to discuss ways to address the problem.
Prof. Dr. Matthias Kilianย from the Soldan Institute at theย University of Cologneย presented the situation in Germany as a forerunner for the rest of Europe.
โ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐ช๐จ๐ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ก๐ค๐ฃ๐-๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ข ๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ค๐ฅ๐ช๐ก๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ, ๐ข๐๐๐ฃ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ง๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐๐ฃ๐๐จ๐จ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐ก ๐ฅ๐ง๐ค๐๐๐จ๐จ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐จ ๐๐จ ๐ฃ๐ค๐ฉ ๐๐ค๐ค๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ค๐ช๐๐ โ ๐๐ฃ ๐ค๐ง๐๐๐ง ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐จ ๐ฆ๐ช๐ค, ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐ก ๐ฅ๐ง๐ค๐๐๐จ๐จ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐จ ๐ข๐ช๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ง๐๐๐ฉ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ง ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฃ๐ฉ๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ค๐จ๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฌ๐ค๐ง๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ก๐๐๐.โ
He explained how the growth in the proportion of school-leavers obtaining academic university degrees had led to a peak in the number of new lawyers at the turn of the millennium, with the numbers in steady decline since then. Major demographic shifts, notably the far higher number of women entering the law, mean that the career expectations of Generation Y are starkly different from those of the Baby Boomers who still dominate senior positions but who will soon retire. He argued that the judicial and legal professions need to reform their career models to be more attractive to the future generations of practitioners.
Her Honour ๐๐๐ฑ๐ด๐ฒ ๐๐ป๐๐ท๐ฎ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฟ ๐๐ of Londonโs Central Criminal Court spoke of her own experience of prejudice as a young lawyer of Indian origin in the UK and presented the work of the Judicial Appointments Commission to increase diversity in recruitment to the judiciary.
Giulia Guagliardi, Immediate Past President of theย European Young Bar Associationย and a practicing lawyer in Rome, demonstrated how the image of lawyers in popular culture has been damaged in recent years and called on the legal professions to work together to improve their reputation as an honorable profession.
Austrian judge ๐๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ด ๐ฆ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฎ, former President of theย Council of Europeโs Commission for the Efficiency of Justice, talked about the need for judges and lawyers to do more to make their work understandable and accessible to the general public.
Christian Lemke, Vice-President of theย Bundesrechtsanwaltskammerย (German Federal Bar Association), described the impact of LegalTech on both the publicโs expectations of the justice system and the skills required of future lawyers. He challenged the legal professions to embrace rather than resist technological developments.
๐๐ฎ๐บ๐ถ๐ท๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐น๐ผ๐ฟ๐ท๐ฎ๐ปฤ๐ถฤ, President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia highlighted the importance of the initial training. Judges, besides being a national judge, are also European judges, therefore they need to apply EU law, if necessary, ask preliminary reference questions from the CJEU. The importance of this pan-European aspect and the cross-border procedures โ both in civil and criminal cases โ require judges also to master foreign languages. The judicial salary and the appointment procedure are the main shortcomings in Slovenia. The involvement of the legislative powers in the appointment is subject of constant debates for decades. The political influence also decreases the attractiveness of the judicial profession. Last, president Florjanฤiฤ also mentioned the problem of gender imbalance, which differentiates based on the level of the court.
Patrick Gielen, a judicial officer from Brussels, the secretary of the International Union of Judicial Officers (UIHJ – UNION INTERNATIONALE DES HUISSIERS DE JUSTICE) started his short presentation on the Belgian system about raising the question of ageing (the average is 62 years). He mentioned that the role of judicial officers and bailiffs is not well known enough by the society, there is a rather bad image presented by the media. In Belgium there are only a few possibilities for training, however in some countries the situation is even worse, there is a total lack of training.
Alix Frank-Thomasserย the Chair of theย CCBEย Corporate Social Responsibility Committee introduced the Austrian system of initial training and what are the essential technical skills for lawyers. She elaborated the soft skills lawyers need to master to become successful and mobile lawyers. Covid pandemic brought more attention to the importance to modernize the working environment in law firms. She elaborated on the gender stereotypes, and the issue of gender imbalance (either towards men or women).
In the late afternoon the Forum was concluded with some very interesting remarks by the representatives.
The ๐๐จ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐๐บ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ด๐ฎ๐น ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ณ๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ aims to provide a structured dialogue among the legal professions in Europe, where common challenges and concerns can be addressed and analyzed.
Facilitated by the Academy of European Law, it brings together theย European Network of Councils for the Judiciaryย (ENCJ), the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the European Association of Judges (EAJ), the Association of European Administrative Judges (AEAJ), ACA-Europe, the Network of the Presidents of the Supreme Judicial Courts of the EU, the European Union of Judicial Officers (UEHJ) and the European Union of Rechtspfleger (EUR).
