[New Year Special] Among 34,660 Lawyers, Only 0.3% Are 'Public Interest Full-time Lawyers'

[Public Interest Law Campaign]
Joint Survey Results by Durua and Legal Newspaper
117 Full-time Public Interest Lawyers Confirmed
Majority of Public Interest Lawyers Active in the Capital Area

According to a recent joint survey conducted by the nonprofit organization Durua and Legal Newspaper, the number of so-called "public interest lawyers" who work full-time in public interest activities nationwide was confirmed to be 117 as of December 2023. This accounts for 0.33% of the total 34,660 lawyers registered with the Korean Bar Association. Accordingly, there are calls to increase the number of public interest lawyers to revitalize the public interest law ecosystem, while also expanding the number of lawyers actively engaged in public interest activities.

[Photo by Beopryul Sinmun]

Lawyers are the only professional group for whom public interest activities are explicitly mandated. However, the level of public interest activities in Korea significantly lags behind that of advanced countries.

Public Interest Lawyers Account for Only 0.3% of the Total

Examining the distribution of public interest lawyers by organizations and institutions, out of the total 117, 40 belonged to public interest organizations established by lawyers or operated mainly by lawyers, such as the Gonggam Public Interest and Human Rights Foundation and the Hope-Making Law, a public interest lawyers' group.

Additionally, 38 lawyers were employed full-time at public interest organizations established by law firms, 10 at activist-centered public interest organizations and citizen support groups, and 9 at entrusted institutions primarily operated with government support, such as disability rights advocacy agencies and the Seoul Social Welfare Public Interest Law Center. Eleven lawyers were active as public interest fellow lawyers or legal clinic educators at law schools including Seoul National University, Hanyang University, and Inha University, while 9 lawyers worked at law firms handling both public interest cases and general legal services.

The concentration of these public interest lawyers in the metropolitan area was notable. Except for three lawyers working in Busan and Gwangju metropolitan cities, the majority were active in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and other metropolitan areas.

The scale of public interest lawyers in Korea was smaller compared to the United States, where lawyers' nonprofit activities are more active. According to the American Bar Association (ABA) and the National Center for Access to Justice (NCAJ), the number of full-time public interest lawyers working in the civil legal aid sector is about 15,000, which is approximately 1.15% of the total 1.3 million lawyers in the U.S.

Public interest lawyers are responsible not only for legal support such as public interest litigation and legal counseling for socially and economically disadvantaged groups and minorities but also for institutional improvements and policy research. Most of the institutions and organizations to which these lawyers belong are nonprofit organizations, with the majority of their operating funds raised through sponsorships, donations, and fundraising.

Some organizations faced difficulties in hiring additional full-time lawyers due to financial constraints. According to the "Korean Public Interest Lawyers Status Survey Report" published in 2019 by Donghaeng, which works with public interest lawyers, and Durua, 25.7% of public interest lawyers responded that they would like to hire additional full-time lawyers if funding were available. Furthermore, 55% of public interest lawyers said they were unsure whether they would continue working at their current organizations or would not continue. The reasons cited included the difficulty of long-term employment due to financial burdens and organizational structure, as well as future uncertainties. One public interest lawyer, who requested anonymity, said, "Stable jobs that allow public interest lawyers to work for a long time and treatment guaranteeing a minimum monthly salary of around 3 million won are necessary."

Financial Support and Expansion of Activity Base Needed

Since most sponsorships and donations to public interest law organizations are limited to the legal community, there are opinions that the base of donors needs to be expanded. Choi Jeong-gyu (46, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 32), representative lawyer of Law Firm Wongok, who established the public interest legal support center "Fighting Chance" last year and handles both general and public interest cases, emphasized, "An institution responsible for disability rights in the Gyeonggi region was recently able to hire two full-time lawyers thanks to funding from the legal public interest group Now and support from senior legal professionals. Diverse routes for fundraising must be made possible for the development of public interest law organizations."

Legal professionals point out that to expand the public interest law ecosystem, not only the number of full-time public interest lawyers but also the number of lawyers engaging in public interest activities and those who handle both general civil and criminal cases and nonprofit legal activities should increase. Kang Jeong-eun (39, 3rd bar exam), a lawyer at Durua, said, "To fundamentally solve various social problems surrounding socially disadvantaged and minority groups, a sustainable rights advocacy ecosystem must be established in which civil society, local communities, government, corporations, and legal professionals organically cooperate."

There are also calls to expand public interest activity education at law schools that train prospective legal professionals. Park Seon-a (49, class 32), professor at Hanyang University Law School and president of the Korean Legal Clinic Association, said, "Since passing the bar exam is not easy, the law school curriculum inevitably focuses on exam preparation. It is necessary to increase the number of legal clinic course hours so that prospective legal professionals recognize the importance of public interest law activities and can participate in them."

There are also demands for the Korean Bar Association and local bar associations, which are operated with lawyers' membership fees, to take a more active role in supporting public interest activities. According to the Korean Bar Association, the budget spent on operating the pro bono committee and providing public interest activity manual education to lawyers nationwide in 2022 and last year was about 13 million won annually. The Seoul Bar Association announced that it allocated a budget of 230 million won last year for public interest activities, including support for full-time public interest lawyers. Although the Seoul Bar Association has a pro bono support center, the full-time lawyer position is currently vacant. A Seoul Bar Association official stated, "We are conducting internal discussions to select a lawyer to be in charge of the center."

Hong Yoon-ji & Jo Han-ju, Legal Newspaper Reporters

※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.

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