No, he actually was a practising lawyer without quotation marks. He also worked with the Stasi, of course (he became an IM in the 50s, but he'd already been well established as a lawyer), and post-Abel/Pryor/Powers exchange became the chief GDR negotiator for the realise of political prisoners from East to West Germany. Which is why post-GDR he had a couple of famous defenders in the top political West German hierarchy - Herbert Wehner, Helmut Schmidt and Richard von Weizäcker all had a lot of praise for him as a "quintessential partner on a historic mission" (Weizäcker quote). The defense applied during a controversy as to whether or not Vogel had blackmailed some of his clients in order to get them on the Go West list. Eventually, he was cleared of the charge and allowed to continue to practice. The last famous trial he was involved with was defending Erich Honecker (in the trial about young Erich H's possible murder of a cop in the Weimar republic) before Honecker went away to Chile. (Given that Honecker had supported Vogel against Mielke, who hadn't liked him, this was probably gratitude.) A very Graham Greene character. (Vogel, not Honecker.)