What is important when you are looking for a lawyer? Dr. iur. Philipp H. Haberbeck explains in this guest post which points you should definitely consider.
The legal market is confusing, and there are hardly any opportunities for comparison. Anyone who cannot rely on personal recommendations quickly loses track. So what is important when you are looking for a lawyer? Dr. iur. Philipp H. Haberbeck explains in this guest post which points you should definitely consider. Most lawyers are likely to have occasionally experienced in their careers how difficult it can be to find a good lawyer. For example, when they were looking for a colleague abroad or outside their own field of specialization. Lawyers can therefore understand how difficult it is for laypeople to find a suitable legal adviser as a rule. What can be recommended to laypeople in this context in order to successfully find the most suitable lawyer for them?
Pay attention to specialization
It is probably a truism that today no lawyer is able to be well-versed in every area and thus suitable for every conceivable case. For this, the horizontal (more and more areas of life were and are being "legalized") and vertical (the density of norms increased and continues to increase) legislative activity in recent decades was too expansive. This has led to a correspondingly strong growth in activity in the judiciary and administration. Due to this development, it is already demanding for lawyers today to be at the height of legislation and application of law in two or three specialized fields. A clear warning is therefore given against lawyers who advertise a specialization in five, ten or even more areas of law!
From the perspective of those seeking law, against the above background it is in any case crucial that they choose lawyers who are effectively specialized in the relevant area – taxes, divorces, criminal investigations, etc. Or as Werner Grundlehner puts it in an NZZ article dated February 8, 2021 (p. 24): „With lawyers it is ultimately just like with doctors – not everyone is a specialist for all diseases and interventions. The specialist only brings good results in his field of expertise.“
Caution with recommendations
In most cases, laypeople are likely to stick to personal doctor-contacts or rely on recommendations from their social circle when searching for a lawyer. Such recommendations can be a good (first) source of information. However, relying solely on such ultimately coincidental acquaintances or hints is risky and not always goal-oriented. Instead of relying solely on an acquaintance or recommendation, classically a golf or tennis friend or another acquaintance from the personal sphere, the person seeking law should in any case get a more precise picture of the lawyer in question. Thanks to the Internet, social media and various databases, it is now possible to find instructive information about legal advisers.
Ultimately, the search for a lawyer is about finding the most competent lawyer possible. Based on the relevant requirements profile – in simple terms, with lawyers it is about brainpower, not muscle power – the person seeking law should look at various relevant aspects concerning the competence of the lawyer in his research mentioned above, including the following: How did a lawyer finish her studies – with or without distinction? What additional qualifications does the lawyer have – a post-graduate study abroad, a doctorate and/or a specialist lawyer title? How long has the lawyer already been active in practice? With which employers was or is the lawyer active, if he does not work as a self-employed person? Has the lawyer published in specialist journals – and if so, on the relevant topic?
Define legal area
If a person seeking law does not have a relevant acquaintance or recommendation, he should in a first step clarify which legal area his counseling need belongs to. Is it about a building law matter or a problem with tax authorities, or is there a need for action in connection with criminal proceedings? As a rule, even laypeople should succeed in determining the relevant legal area at least roughly, if necessary with the help of the Internet. In a second step, there are now also various databases for the Swiss legal market. Mention should be made here of the databases of the Swiss Bar Association or of Jurata, in which – depending on criteria such as registered office and specialization – lawyers can be searched for. In the opinion expressed here, the database of Jurata is particularly suitable because in this database lawyers cannot only be searched for by specializations, but because search results can be refined according to various criteria, such as the duration and place of activity.
Check availability
Of interest for laypeople should also be the question whether the size of a law firm plays a decisive role. This question is to be answered with a typical lawyer's answer: It depends. Depending on the circumstances of the legal problem, choosing a larger law firm makes sense. For instance, in the case of large transactions that must be processed under time pressure. Or complex investigations in large corporations. Such matters can usually only be handled by larger teams of lawyers. Having such large capacities and being able to provide them immediately is hardly possible for smaller law firms.
Apart from such capacity-related practical constraints, the size of a law firm is not of decisive importance. In the foreground are then above all the personal abilities of the mandate holder and other relevant aspects, not least the availability of the lawyer and the level of the fee. Especially the aspect of availability should not be underestimated. A person seeking law is not served if the specialized and competent legal adviser is so overloaded that, for whatever reason, he cannot dedicate himself to the case of the person seeking law with the necessary time and attention. Not only is it frustrating for the client if he has to wait excessively long for answers or work products of his lawyer. What is also obviously problematic is that under a lack of time, the quality of the service inevitably suffers. The person seeking law should therefore also ensure during his investigations that the candidate is not “overbooked” but has sufficient free capacity for the mandate in question.
A meeting can help
It is certainly recommended for every person seeking law to get to know a lawyer personally before mandating – in the sense of a "smell test". Persons who have a mandate to award should not shy away from making the possible mandating of a lawyer also dependent on such a personal meeting. Such a meeting is not unusual but, on the contrary, is expected more and more frequently. If a lawyer rejects such a procedure or demands a compensation already for a personal meeting to get to know each other, in the view represented here this already says a lot about the person.
If a meeting takes place, the location and design of the office or the appearance of the lawyer provide the person seeking law, in addition to his research, with further valuable information that should result in a gut feeling. If this is bad, it is recommended to the person seeking law to continue the search for the right lawyer. Especially in larger cities there are, as is well known, numerous providers for practically every specialized area, so that the search for the right lawyer – that is, the best qualified provider for the task in question – should be crowned with success sooner or later.
This contribution is based on the guest commentary of Dr. Haberbeck on the topic of lawyer search, published in the NZZ of April 14, 2020.
