Not all questions of professional law deserve to be decided by the highest courts, especially when they actually arise directly from the law. A German lawyer refused to testify as a witness in a case involving a former client because he referred to his attorney-client privilege. However, the current manager of the client had long since released him from the duty of confidentiality. The colleague considered the duty of confidentiality to be a lawyer's privilege of secrecy and remained silent. He took legal action in Germany against the justifiably issued administrative fine all the way to the Federal Constitutional Court (!) and then to the European Court of Human Rights(!!). He claimed a violation of Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention (respect for private and family life).

What got into the colleague's head? To step out of the anonymity of the legal profession - since the parties are named before the ECtHR? Since the colleague's name is Müller (thus he bears the name of thousands of German lawyers), he has only barely succeeded in doing so.