Introduction

The legal market is confusing and there are hardly any opportunities for comparison. If you can't fall back on personal recommendations, you quickly lose track of things. So what is important when you are looking for an attorney? In this guest article, Dr. iur. Philipp H. Haberbeck explains which points you should definitely consider.

During their careers, most attorneys may have experienced for themselves how difficult it can be to find a good attorney. For example, if they were looking for a colleague abroad or outside their own area of expertise. Attorneys can therefore understand how difficult it is usually for laymen to find a suitable legal advisor. What can you recommend to laymen in this context in order to successfully find the most suitable attorney for them?

Pay attention to specialization

It is likely to be a truism that today no attorney is able to be experienced in every area and is therefore suitable for every conceivable case. For this, horizontal (more and more areas of life have been and are being “legalized”) and vertical (the density of standards has increased and continues to increase) legislative activity in recent decades has been too expansive. This has led to a correspondingly strong growth in activity in the judiciary and administration. As a result of this development, it is already demanding for lawyers to be at the cutting edge of legislation and application of law in two or three specialist areas. Attorneys who specialize in five, ten or even more areas of law should therefore be expressly warned!

Against the above background, it is crucial from the point of view of law seekers that they choose attorneys who are effectively specialized in the relevant area – taxes, divorces, criminal investigations, etc. Or as Werner Grundlehner put it in an NZZ article from February 8, 2021 (p. 24): “Lawyers are ultimately the same as doctors – not everyone is a specialist for all illnesses and procedures. The specialist only brings good results in his area of expertise. ”

Be cautious with recommendations

In most cases, laypeople are likely to stick to personal acquaintances or to recommendations from their environment when looking for an attorney. Appropriate recommendations can be a good (initial) source of information. However, relying solely on appropriate, basically random acquaintances or tips is risky and not always effective. Instead of relying solely on an acquaintance or recommendation, which is traditionally a golf or tennis enthusiast or another acquaintance from a personal environment, the lawyer in question should in any case obtain a more detailed picture of the attorney in question. Thanks to the Internet, social media and various databases, it is now possible to obtain insightful information about legal advisors.

Ultimately, the aim of looking for an attorney is to find the most competent attorney possible. Based on the relevant requirement profile – in simple terms, lawyers are about brain strength, not muscle strength – should the attorney's competence mentioned above look at various relevant aspects, including the following: How did an attorney complete her studies – with or without predicate? What additional qualifications does the lawyer have – additional studies abroad, a doctorate and/or a specialist attorney's degree? How long has the attorney been working in practice? Which employers did or does the attorney work for if he is not working as a self-employed person? Has the attorney published in professional journals – and if so, on the relevant topic?

Define area of law

If a legal seeker does not have a relevant acquaintance or recommendation, he should first understand which area of law his need for advice is located in. Is it 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 are likely to be able to roughly identify the relevant area of law, possibly with the help of the Internet. As a second step, there are now also various databases for the Swiss attorney market. These include the databases of the Swiss Bar Association or Jurata, which – depending on criteria such as place of business and specialization – can be used to search for attorneys. According to the opinion expressed here, the Jurata database particularly suitable because this database allows attorneys not only to search for specialist areas, but also because the search results can be refined according to various criteria, such as the duration and location of their activity.

Check availability

For laypeople, the question of whether the size of a law firm plays a decisive role may also be of interest. This question can be answered with a typical attorney's answer: It depends. Depending on the circumstances of the legal problem, it makes sense to choose a larger law firm. For example, for large transactions that have to be processed under time pressure. Or complex investigations in large companies. Such matters can usually only be handled by larger teams of attorneys. It is hardly possible for smaller law firms to have such large capacities and to be able to provide them immediately.

However, outside of such capacity-related constraints, the size of a law firm is of no decisive importance. The focus is then primarily on the client's personal abilities and other relevant aspects, not least the availability of the lawyer and the amount of the fee. The aspect of availability in particular should not be underestimated. A lawseeker does not benefit if the specialized and competent legal advisor is so overburdened that, for whatever reason, he is unable to devote the necessary time and attention to the lawseeker's case. Not only is it frustrating for the client when he has to wait an excessively long time for answers or work products from his lawyer. Another obvious problem is that the quality of the service will also inevitably suffer due to lack of time. When making inquiries, the right seeker should therefore also ensure that the candidate is not “overbooked” but has sufficient free capacity for the mandate in question.

A meeting can help

It is certainly recommended that every attorney personally get to know an attorney before mandating – in the sense of a “smell test.” Persons who have a mandate to award should not be afraid to make any mandate of an attorney dependent on such a personal meeting as well. Such a meeting is not uncommon, but, on the contrary, is expected more and more often. If an attorney rejects such action or demands compensation for a personal acquaintance, this already says a lot about the person, in the opinion expressed here.

If a meeting takes place, the location and design of the office or the appearance of the lawyer provide the attorney with further valuable information in addition to his research, which should result in a gut feeling. If this is bad, it is recommended that the attorney continue the search for the right attorney. As is well known, in larger cities in particular, there are numerous providers for virtually every specialist area, so that the search for the right lawyer – i.e. the best qualified provider for the task in question – should be successful sooner or later.

This article is based on Dr. Haberbeck's guest commentary on the topic of looking for lawyers, published in the NZZ on April 14, 2020.

The original text was translated from german to english by machine translation.

This is a machine translated version.