Vom Anwalt zur Anwalts-Kapitalgesellschaft

When practicing lawyers carry out their activities within the framework of an AG or GmbH, they are referred to as lawyers' corporations. Until a few years ago, it was practically unthinkable that lawyers would allegedly deprive their profession of freedom by means of such a legal form and that they would almost obviously - already through the choice of the legal form - steer it into commercial channels. The BGFA does not contain any special regulation for lawyers' corporations. The admissibility of such companies therefore already raises questions in principle. In addition, the safeguarding of the professional duties of lawyers requires a special arrangement under corporate law, the concrete implementation of which is considered to be impossible or hardly feasible in various cases. The present work shows how practice has developed solutions to these problems, in particular also taking into account the two cantonal laws.