Korean Bar Association: "Oversupply of Lawyers Leads to Decline in Service Quality"

Citing a Research Report by the Korean Society for Quality Management

The Korean Bar Association has warned that an expansion in the supply of lawyers beyond the market's absorption capacity could weaken professional expertise and undermine occupational ethics, ultimately resulting in harm to the public.

On April 23, the association cited a research report by the Korean Society for Quality Management, stating that increasing the supply of lawyers does not lead to higher service quality. The report presented examples where an oversupply of professionals resulted in a decline in quality, such as with dentists in Japan and licensed real estate agents in Korea. In Japan, policies to prepare for an aging society led to a rapid increase in dental schools, resulting in a situation where there are more dental clinics than convenience stores. As competition for patients intensified, overtreatment and splitting of treatments became rampant. In Korea, an oversupply of licensed real estate agents has led to frequent ethical lapses such as brokering "empty jeonse" properties, with approximately 40% of suspected jeonse fraudsters in 2023 being licensed agents.

The domestic legal market has shown a similar trend. The number of registered lawyers surged from 14,534 in 2012 to 38,235 in 2026, while the number of first-instance civil case filings dropped by about 30%, from approximately 1.05 million to around 740,000 during the same period. The rate of lawyer representation stands at about 20%, and the rate of private defense counsel in criminal cases is only 30%. Within this structure, the average number of cases handled per month is just one, and the median income remains at roughly 30 million won. As a result, lawyers are spending less time per case in order to maintain earnings, and the quality of legal services is said to be declining, according to the research association.

The training environment is also deteriorating. Each year, about 33% of new qualifiers—approximately 561 individuals—are unable to receive on-the-job training, which directly undermines the practical skills of new lawyers. Over the past five years, most disciplinary actions have been due to violations of advertising regulations (303 cases), breaches of dignity (192 cases), and breaches of duty of sincerity (89 cases), leading to the analysis that market oversaturation is threatening the self-regulation capacity of the professional community.

Even compared internationally, the number of new lawyers produced in Korea is exceptionally high. From 2021 to 2024, the average annual number of newly registered lawyers was 867 in Japan and 1,722 in Korea—more than double in Korea. On a per capita basis, the gap is more than fourfold. In contrast, the size of Korea's legal market is significantly smaller than similarly sized economies such as Germany (40 trillion won) and France (70 trillion won).

Kim Jungwook, President of the Korean Bar Association, commented, "Once the number of lawyers surpasses saturation, the quality of services becomes uniformly lower, advertising competition costs are passed on to consumers, and young lawyers become exposed to temptations of illegal or unethical practices. The ongoing decline in job postings and the increase in disciplinary cases are negative indicators of oversupply," he said.

Based on this research, the association plans to urge a comprehensive review of lawyer workforce policies, moving away from a supply expansion approach and toward policies grounded in empirical data.

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