Confirmation Committee Adopts Hearing Report on Kwon Young-jun, "Will Return Income if Appointed as Supreme Court Justice"

Writing an Opinion Letter for a Law Firm
Controversy Over Receiving a Large Fee
Inclusion of Minority Opinion Deemed Inappropriate

The National Assembly's Special Committee on Personnel Hearings adopted the review report on the appointment consent bill for Supreme Court nominee Kwon Young-jun on the 18th.

The hearing committee held a plenary session that afternoon and, after reconsidering the adoption of the review report on nominee Kwon, decided accordingly. The review report on nominee Seo Kyung-hwan was adopted the previous day.

Nominee Kwon faced issues for submitting legal opinions to law firms for high fees while serving as a professor at a national university. From 2018 to 2022, he wrote 38 legal opinions for seven law firms and reportedly received a total of 1.81 billion KRW. Nominee Kwon refused to submit the legal opinion documents citing confidentiality obligations.

On the 18th, Chairman Lee Sang-min is conducting the meeting at the Special Committee on Personnel Hearing for the Consent to the Appointment of Supreme Court Justices held at the National Assembly.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

However, in a statement released the previous day, nominee Kwon said, "Among the cases for which legal opinions were submitted (to law firms), I will withdraw the submission of opinions for ongoing lawsuits," and added, "I intend to find ways to return a significant portion of the income by either refunding or donating it to society." He explained, "I humbly and apologetically acknowledge that the public may view the high income I earned with concern," and "while faithfully performing my primary duties of research and education as a professor, I submitted opinions or testified only when consistent with academic convictions."

The hearing committee decided to adopt the final review report after reviewing some of nominee Kwon's legal opinions that morning. However, the report will also include a minority opinion expressing concerns about the inappropriateness of receiving high fees for writing legal opinions.

Justice Party lawmaker Jang Hye-young requested, "Is it truly consistent with academic ethics for a professor to submit legal opinions for high fees?" and said, "I would like to leave a minority opinion expressing disqualification."

Lee Sang-min, chairman of the hearing committee, pointed out, "It is unreasonable for a national university professor to enter into a service contract receiving a large fee while knowing that he would be used on one side of a lawsuit and siding with that party," and added, "I hope nominee Kwon and the legal community take this matter seriously."

With the adoption of nominee Kwon's review report, the appointment consent bills for the two Supreme Court nominees will be put to a vote at the plenary session scheduled for that afternoon. Supreme Court appointments require the consent of the National Assembly. For the appointment consent bill to be approved in the plenary session, a majority of the total members must be present, and a majority of those present must vote in favor.

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