With 2 Years of Legal Experience, You Can Become a Prosecutor Without an Exam

Published 21 Feb.2024 15:10(KST)

The prosecution has introduced a groundbreaking personnel plan to secure outstanding talent. They have decided to boldly omit the written exam and select experienced prosecutors solely based on submitted documents and interviews.

The Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office announced that they will completely overhaul and implement the 2024 experienced prosecutor recruitment system. The key point of this measure is that, for the first time since the implementation of the experienced prosecutor recruitment system, the practical record evaluation (written exam) will not be conducted.

Additionally, anyone who has worked in legal affairs for more than two years can apply, even without prior experience as a prosecutor. Until now, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office did not disclose the competition rate for experienced prosecutor recruitment. However, since experienced prosecutors were selected in small groups of 3 to 5, the competition rate was relatively high. This time, the number of experienced prosecutors to be selected will also increase, with about 30 expected to be recruited.

[Image source=Beomryul Newspaper]

Along with this, a new procedure has been introduced to publicly disclose the final list of appointees for about two weeks to gather public opinions. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office explained that this is to enhance transparency in the selection process and to select qualified candidates with expertise, morality, and integrity. A representative from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office stated, “We have lowered multiple entry barriers at once so that competent legal professionals can apply for prosecutor positions without burden.”

This innovation in the experienced prosecutor recruitment process is said to be the decision of Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok (55, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 27). According to coverage by the Legal Times, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office thoroughly analyzed the reasons why law school graduates who passed the bar exam feel burdened when preparing to be appointed as prosecutors and why the application rate is not high while preparing for experienced prosecutor recruitment.

A representative from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office said, “A preliminary survey on the low application rate revealed that many felt burdened by preparing for the written exam, which includes criminal case problems. Not having a written exam does not mean the evaluation criteria are lowered, and since candidates must have performed legal work for more than two years, we can assess their competence through in-depth document screening, record review, and face-to-face interviews.”

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office added that since bar exam scores and law school GPA are also evaluated, and the interview involves presenting criminal case problems instead of routine questions with candidates required to find answers within a limited time, the process will have discriminative power. The experienced prosecutors selected this time will be appointed as prosecutors around August this year, complete job training at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, and be assigned to frontline offices within the year. This is expected to reduce the workload of the prosecution organization and help alleviate manpower shortages.