The court yesterday handed down its ruling on questions referred by the Supreme Court of Austria in a case concerning a woman who sought to qualify as a lawyer in Austria while living and working in Germany.

Katharina Plavec initiated the proceedings against the the Vienna Bar Association (RAK) after it refused to include her in a list of trainee lawyers and issue her with a certificate allowing her to appear in court.

At the time, Ms Plavec was living in Frankfurt, where she worked in the Frankfurt office of international law firm Jones Day, while maintaining a second residence in Vienna.

Although based in Germany, she worked exclusively in the field of Austrian law under the supervision of a lawyer who was qualified in Austria.

However, the RAK refused her application to join the list of trainee lawyers on the basis that she was not carrying out her training with “a lawyer established in Austria”.

Ms Plavec challenged the decision before the Austrian courts in litigation which was appealed to the Supreme Court and ultimately led to a referral to the CJEU.

The key issue before the CJEU was the interpretation of Article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

The court said it could not be assumed that someone training under an Austrian lawyer in another member state “will not receive adequate training nor gain sufficient experience in the practice of Austrian law equivalent to that which someone who has studied law who carries out practical training in Austria would obtain”.

“In those circumstances, a requirement to provide sufficient evidence that the activities actually carried out during such practical training are such as to provide training and experience equivalent to that provided by practical training with a lawyer established in Austria seems capable of ensuring that the objectives of that training have actually been attained,” it added.

Article 45 TFEU was found to preclude legislation which requires training to be carried out with a lawyer established in a certain EU member state and not by a lawyer qualified in that state who is established in another member state.

The case now returns to the Supreme Court of Austria.