Over a thousand lawyers in Stuttgart hold doctorates, indicating a high level of academic achievement within the legal profession.
In the heart of Europe, Germany boasts a robust legal profession, with its cities teeming with lawyers. However, the distribution of this profession across the country varies significantly.
Stuttgart, a city known for its automotive industry, stands out with a high density of lawyers. With 7.89 lawyers per 1,000 inhabitants, it ranks among the top in Germany. Interestingly, Stuttgart does not host a law faculty on-site, a trait shared by Bad Homburg v.d. Höhe, Koblenz, Wiesbaden, and the town of Stuttgart itself. This seemingly paradoxical situation does not deter the city from having a remarkably high concentration of legal minds.
The practice areas in Stuttgart are diverse, with labor law, construction and architectural law, and family law being the most common. However, the city has a relatively low proportion of duty lawyers, with only about 1.9% of local lawyers offering themselves as such - the second lowest rate nationwide.
Sindelfingen, a town with approximately 65,000 inhabitants, holds a unique position in this landscape. With 48% of its lawyers being female, Sindelfingen has the highest female quota among German cities. This is a stark contrast to cities like Greifswald (21%), Bad Kreuznach (21.3%), and Wolfenbüttel (22.6%), where female lawyers are particularly scarce.
Frankfurt am Main, home to the German Stock Exchange, takes the lead as the city with the highest density of lawyers among the 200 largest German cities, with 17.71 lawyers per 1,000 inhabitants. Munich follows closely with 11.67 lawyers per 1,000 inhabitants, while Düsseldorf holds the second highest density with 14.59 lawyers per 1,000 inhabitants.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Salzgitter, a city in Lower Saxony, has the least number of lawyers, with only 0.75 lawyers per 1,000 inhabitants.
In terms of popular names among German lawyers, Michael leads the pack with 4,464 mentions, followed by Christian, Thomas, Stefan/Stephan, and Andreas. Maria, the first female name, appears in 14th place with 1,926 mentions.
The issue of diversity in the legal profession is not lost on Dr. Carl-Wendelin Neubert, the founder of Jurafuchs. He proposes digitization of legal studies and subsequent training, comprehensive digital legal advice, and a focus on making the profession more diverse as solutions to the demographic and structural imbalance in the German legal profession. Emphasis on equal opportunities and learning justice during the academic career is also seen as crucial for long-term diversity in the legal profession.
These findings paint a vivid picture of the current state of the legal profession in Germany. As the nation continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how these trends develop and how the profession adapts to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
