Can Lawyers & Law Graduates in Germany Practice Lawyers in Germany?
Hello everyone! We have finally come to Attorneyship in Germany, What can someone who has studied law in Turkey do in Germany?
Too small for those who know me for the first time with this article I will give a summary. I am Asya, a graduate of Istanbul University Faculty of Law. After finishing school in 4 years, that is, with a very low average, without any length of time, and working as a lawyer in Istanbul for two years, I moved to Frankfurt to pursue a master’s degree (LL.M).. 5 to you in Germany. I am calling you now with the text Lawyer in Germany from my year of study.
Goethe University with a major in Finance (ILF, LL.M in Finance). I got a bachelor’s degree and after graduation we decided to find a job in Germany and stay in Germany. This is where all the events unfolded.. As a law graduate, I knew I couldn’t practice law in Germany.. I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of business I could work in.. Especially without knowing German! With these thoughts, and after a very complicated 6-month job search, I got a job and I have been doing my favorite job for 3 years.. In the continuation of this article, I will talk about my work, in which branches of business law graduates can work in Germany, and in which field I would do my master’s degree if I had the chance to choose again..
While we’re on the subject, I can add the following; You don’t need to get an equivalency, and they don’t ask about the legal compulsory internship in Turkey.. But of course, it would be beneficial for you to complete your internship and come here.
Some of the terms in the article are in English.. I decided to write in English because you will also research in English.. Then let it come, Yolda bi Blog special edition for law graduates!
What Jobs Can Law Graduates Do in Germany?
Can law graduates practice law in Germany?
Now I will give a short answer to that, no. In other words, law graduates from Turkey cannot practice law in Germany.. In other words, they cannot be a lawyer registered with another bar association and cannot attend hearings or sign as a lawyer.. But law is a much broader field than that.. Therefore, I will first write to you the fields in which you can work in the field of law in Germany as a law graduate, and only in English;
You can calculate in which field you can apply for jobs based on your previous experience in the field of law, or if you intend to do a master’s degree in Germany, you can choose your master’s degree from some of these fields.. I will write in detail whether I recommend each category as a graduate field at the same time.
Paralegal:
Paralegal actually means legal assistant.. And you don’t need to be registered with the bar in that country to become a legal assistant in a law firm.. But as you can imagine, you will need to know German to be able to work as a paralegal (99.9%), and if you are applying from Turkey, it is very unlikely that you will be called for an interview even if you speak German.. That’s why paralegal is a little weak among other fields.. I will strongly suggest other specialties.
Compliance:
Compliance actually means compliance with the law. We can also translate it as compliance with the legislation.. Especially in Europe, banks, financial institutions, and licensed financial companies must always be compliant, as there are too many regulatory changes in every field.. In other words, every action they take must comply with the legislation.. And especially in Germany, ‘compliance’ is always a highly sought after specialty..
You are responsible for the compliance of the operation of the company, its new customers, and all kinds of publications & websites, and all company activities with the law and regulations, which are expected from you in the field of Compliance..
If you do not have previous compliance experience, I strongly recommend you to do your master’s degree in compliance. The positions you will apply for later will be compliance analyst, compliance manager regulatory compliance manager and so on.. Here, the first area where I started specializing myself was compliance.
Another similar area is Risk;
Risk Manager:
In fact, the area of Risk is similar to compliance.. But here you are more concerned with internal procedures rather than external factors such as European regulations.. For example, you have duties such as the ‘risk management’ of the company, if the company is a regulated company, arranging the procedure in the relations with the ‘regulator of the company. These positions are mostly opened in banks or ‘regulated entities’. And an open space. That’s why you can consider a master’s degree or specialization in risk (or regulatory risk).
AML (Anti-Money-Laundering)
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AML actually means anti-money laundering’. And it is an area that is as important as compliance and risk, which I mentioned above.. And especially in Germany and Luxembourg, with the increase in the FinTech field, that is, the financial technology field, alternative banking has opened up and one of the most important things for FinTech companies is the AML department.. Because this department monitors the financial activities of the company and ensures integrity in the money flow of the company with its partners, certain criteria (especially the criteria determined by the regulator), and compliance with local & international rules in all money flows that the company is involved in..
If you specialize in AML, the positions you will apply for will be AML analyst, AML compliance manager and MLRO. Of course, there is also its brother KYC.
KYC (Know-Your-Customer)
KYC actually means ‘know your customer’ for short. Think of it like financial institutions overhauling documents to legitimize and authenticate potential customers.. Of course, financial institution clients aren’t always individuals, if a potential client is a high-risk company, verifying documents can be very complicated.. Here is the team that deals with these documents and examines the ‘business’ and ‘work flow’ of potential customers in KYC.. One of the emerging areas with FinTech.
FinOps (Financial Operations)
This is an area of expertise specific to the FinTech field. Think about it this way, when you are sending money from one place to another, there are many institutions involved in that transfer; for example, SEPA, SWIFT, intermediary banks.. and all these institutions sometimes talk over ‘SWIFT’ instead of emailing.. Managing those relationships over SWIFT also requires a separate expertise.. This field is called FinOps.. If you want to do your master’s in this field, you need to look at programs such as ‘finance domain’.
Finance and M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions)
I wrote the two together because that’s exactly what I did for my master’s degree.. Think of M&A as mergers and acquisitions by one company.. If you have a law degree and are planning a career in this field, I can recommend it.. Thus, you will have a very high chance of finding a job, especially in banks and consulting companies.. Frankly, my expectation from myself was that I specialize in this field after my master’s degree, but since I was more interested and excited about FinTech and payments, I turned to FinTech and stayed there..
As you can see, there is no option for those who have a law degree in Turkey and want to work in Germany, but in fact, it’s very…just ask.. Now, finally, I will write the names of a few of the master’s programs that you can apply to work in the fields I have mentioned above.
- LL.M Financial Crime Compliance
- LL.M Financial Compliance and Risk Management
- Master in Global Corporate Compliance
- Master in Compliance
As you can see, the last two are not LL.M programs, so they are not just law graduates, Other fields can also apply.. But this is a positive thing in our opinion, and something that allows the curriculum to be more diverse..
This is my advice to law graduates in Turkey. If you leave your questions in the comments section, I will definitely try to answer them.
I wish everyone success!
Let’s leave the link of our guide for postgraduate application in Germany here.
With love,
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