Active Lawyers File Police Complaint Against Bar Association President Who Blocked Use of 'Lotok'

Charges Including Obstruction of Business and Breach of Trust

On the 16th, active lawyers filed a complaint against six members of the Korean Bar Association's executive team, including Chairman Lee Jong-yeop, at the Civil Complaints Office of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on charges of obstruction of business and coercion. Photo by the Lawyers' Group Opposing Unfair Member Disciplinary Actions

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Gyumin] Active lawyers have filed a complaint with the police against executives of the Korean Bar Association (KBA), who have been blocking the use of the legal service platform ‘Lotok’.

The group of active lawyers called the ‘Lawyers Opposing Unfair Member Disciplinary Actions’ (hereafter the Group) held a press conference on the 16th in front of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Jongno-gu, Seoul, stating, “We are filing complaints and accusations against six KBA executives, including Chairman Lee Jong-yeop of the KBA and Chairman Kim Jung-wook of the Seoul Bar Association, for obstruction of business, coercion, breach of trust, and other charges for disciplining members and unfairly restricting their professional activities due to their use of legal platforms.”

They claimed, “The KBA executives, with the intention of banning legal platforms such as Lotok, arbitrarily revised the ‘Regulations on Lawyer Advertising’ in May last year and continuously harassed hundreds to thousands of members by investigating alleged violations of these regulations.”

They added, “Despite the prosecution, police, and Ministry of Justice issuing investigation results and authoritative interpretations stating that legal platforms do not violate the current Attorney-at-Law Act, and despite the Constitutional Court ruling that the advertising regulations are unconstitutional, the KBA has arbitrarily interpreted these rulings, to the extent of damaging the authority of the legal professional organization itself.”

They further stated, “Many lawyers, fearing disciplinary actions or professional disadvantages caused by disciplinary procedures, have been unable to raise their voices even though they know the association’s policies are wrong, and as a result, lawyers had to withdraw from platforms like Lotok. While disciplinary actions may have been an effective political ‘card’ for the association, for members, discipline is a ‘lifeline.’”

In May, the Constitutional Court ruled in a constitutional complaint filed by Lotok’s operators and others that banning acts of receiving compensation to ‘advertise or promote’ lawyers was unconstitutional. However, the Court upheld the constitutionality of prohibiting acts such as revealing the firm name while introducing or referring lawyers.

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