• Part of the object of the company is to advise and represent clients in legal matters.
• Partners are active in the company and come from one of the following professional groups:
  • Attorneys at law
  • Members of the Chamber of Patent Attorneys
  • Tax consultants
  • Tax agents
  • Certified public accountants
  • Sworn auditors and accountants
  • liberal professions
• The partnership agreement stipulates that partners who seriously or repeatedly violate obligations under the German Patent Attorneys Act (PAO) or the professional code of conduct may be excluded.
• The capital structure of the company meets the following requirements:
  • If other companies are involved in the company, these are either licensed professional practice companies or a civil law company whose sole purpose is to hold shares in a licensed professional practice company.
  • The transfer of company shares must be subject to the approval of the shareholders' meeting. In the case of public limited companies or partnerships limited by shares, the shares must be registered.
  • Shares in the professional practice company may not be held for the account of third parties. Third parties may not participate in the profits of the professional practice company.
• The members of the management are exclusive:
  • Attorneys at law,
  • Patent attorneys and patent attorneys,
  • tax advisors and tax consultants,
  • tax agents,
  • certified public accountants,
  • sworn accountants and auditors or
  • Members of the liberal professions.
• They do not meet any of the possible grounds for refusal and have not been disqualified from representing a professional practice firm and managing its business or performing the supervisory functions of a professional practice firm.
• The management includes a number of lawyers who are authorized to represent the company.
• The independence of the lawyers is guaranteed if they are responsible for the management or represent the company in any other way.
• The company is not in a state of financial collapse.
• If the company is called a law firm, lawyers hold the majority of voting rights and constitute the majority of the members of the management body.
• There is professional liability insurance with a minimum sum insured of EUR 2.5 million per insured event or a provisional cover note. The maximum annual benefit for all damages caused in an insurance year is at least four times the minimum sum insured. If no more than 10 persons work as patent attorneys or in a liberal profession, the minimum sum insured is EUR 1 million.
• The following additional requirements and special features apply to the admission of foreign companies based in a WTO member state:
  • The company is authorized to provide legal services under the law of the state in which its registered office is located.
  • Its shareholders are
    • Attorneys at law,
    • patent attorneys and patent attorneys,
    • tax advisors and tax consultants,
    • tax agents,
    • auditors and certified public accountants.
    • The German branch office has its own management, which can represent the company and has sufficient powers to ensure compliance with professional law in relation to the German branch office.
• The authorization to provide legal advice and representation under German law only exists if
  • at least one attorney-at-law is involved as a partner and
  • the management of the German branch office includes a number of patent attorneys authorized to manage and represent the company.

The law firm must notify the competent bar association of any changes to the articles of association, the partners or the authorized representative. This also applies to the establishment or dissolution of branch offices. The notification must be accompanied by a publicly certified copy of the relevant deed.

If a law firm can no longer guarantee that the majority of the shares and voting rights are held by lawyers and that the majority of the managing persons are lawyers, it may no longer call itself a law firm and must operate under a different form of professional association and notify the competent bar association accordingly.