Education and Specialization in Legal Profession

Education and Specialization in Legal Profession

Frequent legislative changes and a lack of systematic training have caused legal uncertainty and inefficiency in Croatia’s judiciary.

AmCham identifies key issues: misalignment between legal education and labor market needs, insufficient student practice, an unstructured process for qualifying as judges and lawyers, and the absence of mandatory continuous professional education. Recommendations include: expanding mandatory student internships and introducing intellectual property law as a core subject, establishing structured traineeships modeled on the German system, making continuous judicial and legal training compulsory, introducing career progression and salary grading within courts, and ensuring court specialization in complex areas of law. Implementing these measures would lead to a faster and more stable judiciary, a stronger investment climate, and improved quality of life for Croatian citizens.