Our arbitrattoria lunch bowls have been part of our annual schedule since the pandemic, and we were honored to welcome Prof. Dr. Jörg Risse as our 30th lunch bowl guest last week.

Jörg spoke about a topic that is close to his heart: the importance for lawyers to look beyond the law and into the neighboring disciplines such as art and literature, psychology and math, architecture and IT.

He even took us on a little manipulation exercise to illustrate how unconscious bias reflects upon decision making processes (although we will never really understand how some of us ended up with a rat or ape in France rather than an elephant in Denmark).

Jörg concluded by highlighting the importance of reforming the German legal educational system which has basically not changed since the entering into force of the German Civil Code in 1900, especially if lawyers were to have a relevant impact on society. He turned to the younger generation for the necessary impulses, to the older generation for using their influence to make it happen, and to both for engaging in discussions on the topic with one another.

Many thanks, dear Jörg!