As long as the profession and the practice of coaching are not regulated by law, the quality standards of professional coaching will continue to be set and controlled by professional associations for coaches, such as the International Coaching Federation (ICF), AC or EMCC, which were established 25 years ago. They are currently regulating the professional coaching market and are well-recognised in business and academic education all over the world across all industries (including in master’s degree programs in communication science at universities). In this respect, the legislature does not see any need at the moment to claim a state monopoly on education or to intervene in a regulatory manner to avert danger, as opposed to the situation with medical or legal education, e.g. by imposing minimum requirements for training and licensing. However, in fields where coaching is practiced by persons of a profession with a training monopoly, such as legal coaching by lawyers, the corresponding professional codes of conduct and licensing requirements apply anyway, including the obligation to have professional liability insurance as well as meet the special requirements for diligence, confidentiality, and marketing. In this respect, legal coaches are more likely to be found on lawyer portals and lawyer search services rather than in the otherwise common coach databases or coach referral platforms. Like mediation, legal coaching is used primarily in family law and business law, especially in divorce law and in the area of mergers and acquisitions, but also in criminal law. It is also used not only in pure legal counselling but at the interface between human resources departments, the executive level and recruitment and outplacement processes. In addition, it is also used in the run-up to extensive or complicated litigation for the development of strategy and tactics. Both internationally and in the German-speaking world, there are now quite a number of lawyers and law firms who use this method and employ it as an additional qualification. The first legal technology application based on this – My Legal Coach, or My Legal Case Coach – has also appeared on the market. In this context, legal coaching, similar to design thinking, is also suitable as a method for developing legal tech products and other technologybased applications: For example, this method was used during the world’s largest hackathon, #WirvsVirus 2020, when the German government called on startups and developers to develop solutionfocused products to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Compensation Legal coaching is generally remunerated in accordance with a private law agreement on remuneration between the lawyer and the client. However, in many countries, the minimum renumeration for legal coaching services is subject to the same regulations that also apply to the renumeration of lawyers for their regular legal consulting services. A legal coach, similar to a specialist lawyer, is considered an expert and can usually charge an increased hourly rate of at least €200. Training Postgraduate training in legal coaching for lawyers, like any other training in professional coaching, is carried out in accordance with the quality standards for coaching training, such as the accreditation process for coach training programs by the International Coaching Federation or the Legal Coaching Training Program certified by the CLP-Academy, founded in 2016. Thus, on one hand, the respective national legal rules and regulations for coaches, coaching training and the practice of coaching have to be complied with. On the other hand, compliance with the professional regulations for lawyers and legal education has to be ensured as well. Since 2021, a so-called Certified Legal Coach (CLC) certification is available in Canada, which is provided by the Certified Coaches Federation. It entails an online weekend training course and a membership in the Legal Coaches Association. Legal coaching training courses, with their combination of theory and practice, are roughly comparable to the training required to become a specialist lawyer or a mediator. Similar to these courses, legal coaching training costs several thousand euros (more than €5,000). After completion of the training, the trainee will receive a training certificate from a licensed institute identifying them as a legal coach. “Dr Tutschka hopes her path will encourage other female lawyers to consistently pursue their own life plans and not to be pigeonholed by others.” - 25 - LEGAL COACHING GERMANY Women in Law Awards 2021
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