In its decision of 13 September 2013 the Federal Supreme Court concluded that counsels being admitted at the Federal Supreme Court shall be independent from instructions of their clients (in Germany, parties are required to instruct in civil litigation special counsel if the dispute comes to an appeal at the Federal Supreme Court. Such special counsels are admitted at the Federal Supreme Court only – so-called FCJ Counsel). This Federal Supreme Court decision may be of practical relevance since it might be misunderstood in practice that FCJ Counsel shall not have to include changes or other comments made by their clients to FCJ Counsel’s written pleadings. In a nutshell, the decision reflects the question to what extent FCJ Counsels have to respect instructions from their clients. For more information please see the recent article from Christian Thomas Stempfle (in German), published in Anwaltsblatt issue 4/2014 (http://anwaltsblatt.anwaltverein.de/), or contact our Munich team.