[Bar Association President Election] Current Executive vs Non-Executive Candidates in Close Contest... Differing Stances on Lotok Response

From the left, lawyers Kim Young-hoon, Ahn Byung-hee, and Park Jong-heun, candidates for the 52nd President of the Korean Bar Association election. Photo by each candidate's office.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The election for the 52nd President of the Korean Bar Association, with three candidates running, is showing signs of a fierce contest and is becoming increasingly heated.

The election, scheduled for January 16 next year, features three candidates: Attorney Kim Young-hoon (58, Judicial Research and Training Institute Class 27), who passed the Judicial Examination; Attorney Ahn Byung-hee (60, Military Legal Officer Appointment Examination 7th), who passed the Military Legal Officer Appointment Examination; and Attorney Park Jong-heun (56, Military Legal Officer Appointment Examination 10th, Judicial Research and Training Institute Class 31), who passed both exams.

Attorneys Kim and Park currently serve as Vice President and Senior Vice President of the Bar Association, respectively. Although there are differences in degree, these two candidates are successors of the current Bar Association executive team and intend to maintain many of the policies promoted by President Lee Jong-yeop. In contrast, candidate number 2, Ahn Byung-hee, strongly criticizes the current executive team as "incompetent and abnormal."

Attorney Kim claims to be the only candidate continuing the current executive team, adopting the slogan "The only candidate who practices what he preaches and keeps his promises." Attorney Ahn positions himself as the sole candidate to correct the current administration's mistakes, with the catchphrase "From abnormal to normal! From incompetence to competence!" Attorney Park emphasizes that he is the candidate who embodies the three qualities of experience, ability, and character, pledging to create a "harmonious and unified Bar Association."

In the early stages of the election, many in the legal community predicted Attorney Kim's advantage. This was due to expectations that the current Bar Association and Seoul Bar Association executives, including President Lee who has worked with the Directorship Defense Lawyers Group and Seoul Bar Association President Kim Jung-wook, as well as many law school graduates, would support Kim. Although Attorney Park is also an executive in the current administration, it was widely expected that the vote would not be significantly divided.

However, as Attorney Ahn, who declared differentiation from the current executive team, increased his criticism of the Bar Association and Seoul Bar Association executives, the race has become more competitive. Originally, Attorney Ahn had strong support from experienced mid-career lawyers, but recently, younger lawyers frustrated with the current administration's incompetence and excessive response to LawTalk over the past two years have also begun supporting him.

In particular, a recent controversy arose when it was revealed that Attorney Ahn's campaign materials, which he intended to include in the first round of election print materials but were blocked by the Bar Association's Election Commission, could not be sent out.

A lawyer in Seocho-dong said, "Many lawyers who received Attorney Ahn's campaign materials by email were curious about the content on the two fully black-and-white pages." He added, "Later, when the court accepted Attorney Ahn's provisional injunction and it was reported that the Bar Association's Election Commission prevented distribution of content related to current Bar Association executives' 'self-appointments' and Seoul Bar Association executives' 'self-pay raises,' many lawyers became more interested in this election."

Meanwhile, the candidates show differing positions on the major issue of responding to legal platforms.

Attorney Kim, who has consistently advocated for the expulsion of private platforms and disciplinary actions against lawyers using them, has pledged "expelling private platforms through lawyer unity." He intends to maintain the current administration's stance on LawTalk, aiming to eliminate private platforms from the legal market through amendments to the Attorney-at-Law Act restricting private platforms, disciplinary actions against lawyers, and expanding the operation of the public platform "My Lawyer" run by the Bar Association.

Attorney Ahn also opposes private platforms' market invasion but holds a different view on the response. He believes that given the Bar Association's repeated losses in lawsuits related to platforms, disciplinary actions against LawTalk member lawyers are highly likely to be overturned by the Ministry of Justice or courts. Instead of discipline, he emphasizes pursuing fundamental solutions such as amending the Attorney-at-Law Act to limit advertising subjects to lawyers and mandating the Bar Association's prior review of advertisements.

Attorney Park does not oppose online platforms and legal tech as they are significant trends of the times. However, he points out that current private platforms have the problem of being "intermediary platforms" and pledges to end the war against private platforms by legally codifying the prohibition of legal service advertising by non-lawyers through amendments to the Attorney-at-Law Act.

Since this election will be conducted through 100% offline voting, the prevailing view is that the outcome will depend on how effectively each candidate can mobilize their supporters to the polling stations. The possibility of candidate unification toward the end of the election remains one of the variables.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.