Korean Bar Association Considers Abolishing Mandatory Training for New Lawyers... About 700 Annually

Increase in New Lawyers Completing KBA Training Instead of Practical Placements
KBA: "Training Program Creates Misconceptions About Market Absorption Capacity"

The Korean Bar Association (KBA) is considering suspending the mandatory training program for newly admitted lawyers, which they are currently required to complete in order to begin practicing, starting next year.

According to the legal community on May 6, the KBA believes that, as the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) is narrowing the scale of private-sector recruitment for new lawyers, the annual KBA training program, which accommodates about 700 participants, is concealing the shortage of practical training positions.

According to Article 21 of the current Attorney-at-Law Act, those who pass the bar exam must either work for at least six months at a designated legal practice institution or complete the KBA's mandatory training program to be eligible to open a law office independently or become a member of a law firm or legal association. Accordingly, those who fail to secure a private training position have mainly fulfilled this requirement through the KBA program. As of April 2026, the Ministry of Justice reported that there are 3,886 designated legal practice institutions. However, accepting trainees is not mandatory for these institutions, and the supply of training positions is left to the discretion of each institution, so the actual number of available positions is reportedly much lower.

The number of new lawyers completing the KBA training has been steadily increasing, with a monthly average (from May to October) of 186 in 2023, 212 in 2024, and about 244 in 2025. On an annual basis, this amounts to approximately 700 participants. The rise in the number of KBA trainees is due to the growing number of new lawyers unable to secure private trainee positions. Over the same period, the number of bar exam passers was 1,725 in 2023, 1,745 in 2024, and 1,744 in 2025, while 1,714 passed this year as well.

Kim Jungwook, President of the Korean Bar Association, stated, "The KBA training program gives a mistaken impression about the market's capacity to absorb new lawyers. After completing the six-month program, it appears as though the market is able to integrate them, but that is not actually the case." He added, "Society should ensure that new lawyers establish themselves by undergoing practical training at proper institutions, but the KBA program is actually obscuring the need for such positions."

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