Stefan von Raumer, president of the German Bar Association (DAV), opened the German Lawyers’ Day 2026 in Freiburg with a plea for more willingness to shape the future. “We must help shape the future,” von Raumer said, as reported by FAZ. The influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on daily professional life is enormous: while some lawyers feel left behind by ChatGPT and similar tools, others in large law firms are increasing their productivity.
Von Raumer called on the legal profession to reassert its distinctiveness vis-à-vis citizens and politicians. “That is no longer a given today,” the DAV president said. Specifically, he appealed to lawmakers to retain the mandatory lawyer requirement in civil proceedings for disputes with a value of at least 5,000 euros – even after the increase of local court jurisdiction to 10,000 euros. Only this way, he argued, can a flood of “uncontrolled AI-generated legal briefs” in courts be prevented.
Parallel to the Lawyers’ Day, the Conference of Justice Ministers of the German states (Jumiko) is meeting in Hamburg. Von Raumer hopes for positive signals regarding the reform of legal education and the preservation of lawyers’ advisory monopoly. A Bavarian initiative to open the advisory market to legal protection insurers failed in autumn 2025.
Source: www.faz.net
