Carrying around heavy law books is still a reality for law students in Germany today. For law firms, but above all for public authorities, digitization is also lagging behind. People in Germany, on the other hand, manage their daily lives almost exclusively with mobile phones and laptops. Does that still fit together? Perhaps it is now also time for Germany to adapt the legal sector to the so-called “digital natives”. But how? The need for action regarding the digitization of the legal sector is seen in Germany. I can see this in the following points.
1. Student Organizations
In Munich there is a student association called Munich Legal Tech Association (MLTech). It was founded by law and IT students to bring legal tech to the Munich universities.
One step further goes the organization recode.law, a Germany-wide organization with the aim of preparing its members from all fields of law in the best possible way for the digital change in the legal field.
In order to achieve these goals, these organizations organize webinars and workshops on relevant topics, such as the drafting of a digital contract or product liability for software and AI.
2. Think Tanks
Independent of such organizations, other networking events are held, such as the think tank Legal Tech, which is held monthly at the Palace of Justice in Munich. Thus an exchange between law students, lawyers, legislators, entrepreneurs, IT students and professors takes place. The aim of these meetings is also to discuss which technologies are legally possible and desirable, and which are not.
3. Companies
An example of a legal tech company, which was founded in Germany, is BRYTER. BRYTER offers automation solutions without code so that law firms and legal departments can digitize non-formalized decisions and convert them into products. In order to develop these products, the users must have legal know-how, but do not need any programming skills.
According to Michael Grupp, founder and managing director of BRYTER, solutions like BRYTER are in great demand in Germany when it comes to frequently asked legal questions that can be easily standardized, e.g. in the areas of compliance, data security or tax law.
4. Law Firms
According to Chan-Jo Jun, founder of the Würzburg-based law firm JunIT, which specializes in IT and corporate law, the possibilities of standardized tools have not yet been exhausted, and clients are increasingly willing to forego highly individualized personal approaches.
Jun also mentioned that the opportunity for new law firms with Legal Tech is comparable to the opportunity for other specialized law firms without Legal Tech: They will replace the generalists in consumer-oriented fields of law.
5. Universities
It seems that an increasing, but only marginal percentage of law students continue their education in IT areas (online) in addition to their law studies at university. This is due to the fact that there are still very few courses at German universities that cover the intersection between law and technology.
One of few examples is the University of Bayreuth, which offers additional certificates for law students in IT and digitization.
Another example is an interdisciplinary seminar organized by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (law) and the Technische Universität München (computer science). I took part in this seminar in 2016 and it aroused my interest in Legal Tech.
So it can be said that the university administration has taken note of this trend. Nevertheless it is desirable that more interdisciplinary seminars are offered for law and IT students. This could improve communication between students and develop a better understanding of each other’s areas of expertise, which in turn could lead to more effective cooperation in the future.
The fact is that law students and lawyers are increasingly confronted with technology. The opportunities offered by technology in the legal industry, as well as the corresponding qualities as a workforce in legal tech start-ups, companies and law firms, are likely to increase in Germany as well.
Taking this into account, the digitization of the legal sector in Germany leaves much to be desired in many areas.
About the author:
Laura Bingenheimer is a law student at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and a member of recode.law
This piece was contributed as part of the 2019 Harvard Legal Technology Symposium organized by the Harvard Law & Technology Society. The Symposium was the largest student organized legal technology event in the world. It brought together an interdisciplinary and international community to think deeply about how technology can improve and shape the law.