We are celebrating the 2nd year of the success story of the Book "Law Firm Development" of our CLP Consultant Dr. Geertje Tutschka
When Dr. Geertje Tutschka's book "Kanzleigründung und Kanzleimanagement" (De Gruyter 2018) was welcomed and celebrated by the lawyers, the publishing team of DeGruyter and the many supporters and companions at the German Lawyers' Conference (DAT) 2018 in Mannheim on 7 June 2018 with a great book launch champagne reception, it was not the first book that tried to present this complex topic in a structured way.
The legal profession, as a bunch of strong individualists, has managed over the last hundred years to retain a great deal of individual freedom as a liberal profession in both Germany and Austria - which is naturally also reflected in their business, the law firms. Thus, there is no "blueprint" for a successful law firm; however, there are some important entrepreneurial aspects that every lawyer who wants to make his law firm profitable and his working life meaningful should know. And aspects that may be missed by non-lawyers - because it is often difficult to convey to those outside the industry that the legal sector and its business simply tick differently.
And so the success story of the book began at DAT 2018 with the meeting of the experts from the industry who had been brought together in the book, such as Markus Hartung, then from Bucerius Law School, who wrote the foreword, Sebastian von Glahn (TalentRocket), Johanna Busmann (BusmannTraining), Pia Löffler (Law Firm Marketing), Jochen Brandhoff (Legal Revolution), Martin Wohlrabe (Consilium), Katharina Miller (EWLA and European Commission), Dr. Arndt Eversberg (Roland Versicherung) and many more, who still deserve a heartfelt thank you today.
The interview series of the Beck-Verlag as well as entire webinar series at the FFI-Verlag and the Lawyers' Academy on the topic followed. For young lawyers, two supplementary e-books for the MKG publishing house on the topics of "Setting up a law firm - step by step" and "The law firm as a successful business" were developed with checklists and overviews.
Interviews and reviews in all the important trade journals in Germany and Austria followed - but without doubt the most fun was the one with Dr. Dominik Herzog (check the links below). The 5-part series of articles in Haufe.Recht finally took up the essential contents in a condensed form in autumn 2019.
The participation in the FFI-publisher law firm survey in 2019, in Advoware's Advotec campaign at the German Lawyers' Conference 2019 in Leipzig, the Legal Revolution in Frankfurt in 2019 and in the lecture by Dr. Tutschka together with Prof. Dr. Kilian of the Soldan Foundation at the virtual German Lawyers' Conference 2020 - there is hardly any event in the industry in recent years at which the book has not been, is and will not be present...
And this is what experts, colleagues and readers say about the book:
"The present book is characterized by the systematic presentation of the topics that should be considered when founding a law firm or repositioning an existing law firm, i.e. strategically positioning it".
Markus Hartung, then Director of the Bucerius Center on the Legal Profession at Bucerius Law School, Chairman of the Professional Law Committee of the German Bar Association in the foreword, Hamburg 2018
"The author has succeeded in producing a special kind of guide, which not only aims to help the interested founder of the law firm to work through checklists, but also to enable him to completely question himself and his vision in order to put his concept on a solid footing."
Business Guide for Young Lawyers 2018/2019
"As a source of knowledge on the subject of founding and management and as an ever-present reference work for the life cycle of a law firm: highly recommended!"
kanzleiforum.beck-shop 2018
"The book gives courage not only to establish a law firm, but also to manage it properly at every stage of life and thus prepare for the future in the legal industry. The authoress does not forget to concern herself with completely substantial questions of the necessary attendant circumstances for a fulfilled attorney life."
Austrian Bar Association Magazine, 2019
"The book helps to decide when is the right time to start up your own new law firm or to restructure an existing law firm in order to realign it - and thus to be fit for the future".
Attorney daily, 2019
"It is true that bringing children and law firms into the world and accompanying them as they grow up undoubtedly requires nerve, commitment and perseverance. But the most important thing is to give them roots and wings, not just to get them through."
Dr. Geertje Tutschka, PCC in the preface to "Founding and Managing a Law Firm", Munich/Salzburg 2018.
When the book was published at the DAT in 2018, something like the corona shutdown and a rollover of the legal industry with digitalization, short-term legal orders and the cessation of jurisdiction was not foreseeable - all the more astonishing how topical and urgent many chapters are in the current situation of law firms in Germany and Austria.
But in the end that is what distinguishes books are. In this sense: Happy Birthday!
Click here for the videos of the book launch at DAT 2018 and the interview with Dr. Dominik Herzog.