Ruminations in Korea

Novice Lawyers Face Harsh Reality

There is an interesting article in the Korea Herald about the current state of the legal market in Korea.  The government has created a problem and is now trying to find a way to deal with the problem they created.  The problem?  Over saturation of the legal market.

The most recent figures I have heard put the number of practicing lawyers in Korea at somewhere around 5,000.  When compared with a population of some 40,000,000 people, it doesn’t seem to be that much of a problem.  However, Koreans are generally much less litigious than Americans and other Westerners.  Not only is there less reason or need for a litigation lawyer in Korea, a lot of the work normally performed by a lawyer in the US is often performed by legal scriveners, real estate agents, etc.  For example, in America, you are a complete idiot if you do not go to a lawyer when buying a house, but in Korea, it is virtually unheard of for someone to go to a lawyer when buying or closing on a house.

In addition to being less litigious than the US and having fewer reasons to go to a Korean lawyer, a large portion of the work that people actually hire a lawyer to do is very mechanical and can be performed quickly and easily.

It should be noted that in Korea there is not yet a law school system where future lawyers attend law school, take the bar exam, then begin practicing.  Currently, future Korean lawyers pass a ridiculously difficult entrance exam that test just about everything and very little law, and then they enter the Judicial Research and Training Institute for two years.  After graduating from the Institute, they can practice law.

Back when there were fewer lawyers, it used to be that passing the exam and graduating from the Institute essentially guaranteed you a prestigious and wealthy life.  As the article points out, that is not the case any more.

Kim Hyung-nam wanted to work at something different than what his colleagues were chasing so intensely.

What came to mind as a way to make the best of his legal expertise was to serve a religious organization. That led the 40-year-old to go to work after graduation this month from the Judicial Research and Training Institute for the secretariat of the nation’s largest Buddhist sect, Jogye Order.

The fact that Mr. Kim graduated from the Institute at 40 tells how difficult the exam can be.  After deducting two years spent at the institute, and assuming that he graduated from university at 26 as most Korean men do, Mr. Kim likely spent at least 10 years studying for the lawyer exam.

Most Koreans tell you that they would like to retire by 45 or 50 at the very latest, Mr. Kim is just now starting life at 40.  Will he have enough to retire comfortably in 5 or 10 years?

His case may exemplify changing attitudes of the institute’s graduates toward jobs in the legal profession. But it also mirrors the increasing difficulty many are having in pursuing a legal career. One out of five graduates is still looking for job.

An increasing number of lawyers and an increasing jobless rate among Institute graduates is a problem that will not go away.  Lawyers are becoming increasingly desperate to find jobs.

The Jogye Order was a natural choice for Kim, who has believed in Buddhism since he was a college student. He was not the only grad to find a job with the Buddhists.

A colleague opted to work with him in handling legal matters at the Jogye secretariat, which was more than ready to employ professional legal staff.

Mr. Kim was very lucky that he was creative enough to think to look for that niche job.  As for his colleague, I doubt he had several options available to him and chose the best possible job he could.  It is likely that he just damned lucky to have been in the right place at the right time to slide in with Mr. Kim.

“I feel so happy to have an opportunity to use my expertise at the place associated with my religious belief,” Kim said.

He and his colleague were the first graduates of the state-run judicial training institute to land a job with a religious group.

This shows just how lucky they were.  I would be interested to know what approach Mr. Kim used in convincing the order that they should hire him.  Being the first ever to do something is never an easy accomplishment, particularly in Korea where the resistance to change and the desire to maintain the status quo is so strong.

Those who have completed the two-year [institute] course are qualified to become judges and prosecutors or begin practices as lawyers.

Their numbers, which remained slightly over 300 annually in the late 1990s, increased to 798 in 2003 and 966 this year after a government panel decision to nurture more legal professionals as part of its proposed judicial reform.

Only a few years ago, the passage rate for the Korean lawyer’s exam was only about .5% to 1%.  Now, the passage rate has increased to around 3%.  The number of people who pass the exam will increase over the coming years.  Eventually, Korea will transition to a law school system and the number of lawyers will likely increase greatly at that time.  Additionally, there is the continued talk about opening the legal market to foreign firms, even though any such opening will be extremely limited.

As a result, the institute’s students can no longer take it for granted they will find jobs at prestigious law firms or become judges or prosecutors. Competition to get the good marks required for enviable legal jobs has intensified so much that some students say they are overwhelmed by the pressure.

Of this year’s graduates, less than 200 were picked to serve as judges or prosecutors while 124 found jobs at law firms and 143 opened individual law practices.

Some graduates, including Kim and his colleague, chose to work in non-judiciary agencies. More than 30 graduates found jobs at the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the National Police Agency and other government agencies. A dozen joined labor, religious and other civic groups.

“Many graduates appear to be seeking various courses different from the traditional legal career,” said Ko Won-seok, a professor at the judicial training institute run by the Supreme Court in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul.

There is a surprising number of lawyers that are trying to carve out a boutique legal career in new areas such as internet law and other heretofore unexplored areas.  They are doing so on their own or in small groups.  I don’t know how successful a lot of them are, but I admire the bravery and initiative it takes to at least try.

It is desirable for legal experts to advance into more diversified areas because it would help make Korean society more rational and sensitive to legal principles, he said.

That is an interesting statement.  Professor Ko feels that the introduction of lawyers into other areas of society would make Korea society more rational.  I can see how that could be the case, theoretically speaking.  I am just not quite sure that it would work in practice.

It certainly hasn’t worked in the US.  The introduction of lawyers into every walk of life has produced an extremely litigious society where everything is becoming more and more irrational on a daily basis.  No longer can people have the rational viewpoint of “well, lady, if you don’t want to scald your crotch with coffee, then you shouldn’t have an open cup between your thighs trying to mix in cream while driving because you may hit a bump and spill it.”  No longer can a doctor say, “I am so sorry that the surgical procedure didn’t work.”  People will sue because some product doesn’t have some warning that any completely moronic idiot should know. It is like the episode of the Simpsons where Homer points out the warning on the lawnmower against sticking your face into the moving blades and says, “See.  Because of me, now they have a warning.”  Every aspect of American society has the fear of lawsuits somewhere on or below the surface.

I am genuinely concerned that more lawyers in different areas of society will foster the irrationality of society that one can find so easily in the US.  I am also concerned that an increased sensitivity to legal principles in new areas of society will result in an increase in “creative” lawsuits designed to make the lawyer and, presumably, the client rich as well.

In his speech to this year’s graduates, Chief Justice Choi Jong-young urged them to depart from traditional areas of legal work and pioneer into new fields.

But a considerable number of graduates have remained at a loss what to do after failing to get legal jobs they wanted or get the inspiration to venture to new areas.

Judicial training institute figures indicate 213 graduates this year, or about 22 percent of the class, remain undecided about their future career.

I remember that on the first day of law school during the orientation meeting at the beginning of the day, the first thing that was said to us was, “there are no unemployed lawyers, only sole practitioners.”  I don’t much care for the statement that a large number of graduates do not know what to do because they failed to get the jobs they wanted.  The answer to that is simple.  They either take what jobs are available until they find something they like, whether they like them or not, go solo, or chose a different career.  Experience doing something you don’t necessarily like is better than having no experience at all.

“For institute graduates like me, the completion of the course means just the start of another hard period, not the end of the grueling time,” said a 34-year-old graduate who wished to identify himself by his family name Cho.

He was one of more than 100 institute graduates who applied unsuccessfully for five slots at the Financial Supervisory Service.

“The time has gone long before that the passage of the bar examination brings you a rosy future,” said Cho, who spent more than a decade preparing for the test after graduating from a university in Seoul.

As Korean society changes, people, particularly lawyers and doctors are begin to lose that entitlement to a rosy future.  I am sure that most lawyers, both in Korea and the US, and probably elsewhere get involved in the profession because of the money to one degree or another.  It can be a rude awakening to find out that you may not have a cushy life and fabulous income when you have been told your entire life that you just have to become a lawyer and all your problems will be solved.

Experts say the legal community and the government should work out measures to deal with the increasing number of lawyers looking for jobs.

I have no idea what that means.  What measures could be devised?  How would they “deal” with the increasing number of unemployed lawyers?  The government, based on recommendations from experts, created the increased number of lawyers, now the experts are demanding that the government do something about the increasing number of lawyers who can’t find jobs.  I do not believe that anything need to be done.  No one is forced at gunpoint to become a lawyer.  If the number of jobless lawyers continues to increase, eventually the word may get out that it is not such a good idea to become a lawyer.  If you can’t handle the competition, do something else with your life.

“It may take extra time and efforts but those leaving this institute are urged to become an expert in a special field,” said Hong Il-pyo, chief of the judicial training institute.

That is all nice and good, but can the market use or sustain such specialized lawyers.  Simply being an expert in some new field of law does not ensure that you will not be a starving expert.  As Mr. Kim did, new lawyers need to find ways to make themselves marketable so as to show people and companies why they need a lawyer when the didn’t know they needed one.