SEOUL, April 08 (AJP) - Lawyers usually fight for others, but in South Korea these days, they are fighting for themselves.
The Korean Law School Student Association on Wednesday issued a statement signed by 1,024 students from 25 law schools, calling on the government to ease entry barriers by raising the bar exam pass rate to 75 percent from the current median of around 50 percent.
Just days earlier, on Monday, an unseasonably chilly spring drizzle did not deter about 200 lawyers from staging a sit-in outside the Gwacheon Government Complex — home to the Ministry of Justice — demanding the exact opposite: a reduction in new entrants.
They cited intensifying competition, a growing glut in the legal market, and the rise of AI and digital tools threatening to replace paralegals and assistants.
With roughly 1,700 new lawyers entering the market each year, tensions are rising ahead of the April 24 bar exam results, as debate intensifies over whether to curb new entrants or raise the pass rate.
The conflict echoes a long-running dispute. In December 2010, students from 25 law schools staged a protest by piling up withdrawal letters, reflecting a deep divide over quotas.
The Korean Bar Association called for the number of new lawyers to be capped at around 1,000, while law schools insisted on guaranteeing at least 2,000.
According to the Korean Bar Association, the number of lawyers in South Korea is expected to more than triple from around 10,000 in 2009 to an estimated 38,000 this year. The increase has been driven by the steady addition of 1,500 to 1,700 new lawyers annually, including 1,744 newly licensed in 2025.
At this pace, the total could approach 40,000 — roughly one lawyer for every 1,350 people.
The ratio remains a far cry when compared to 1 per 249 in the United States and the OECD average of 1 per 555, but the expansion has intensified competition and eroded incomes in Korea where legal services are less common than developed economies.
The Korean Bar Association said the average number of cases handled per lawyer has fallen from 6.97 in 2008 to fewer than one today. Median annual income has dropped to around 30 million won, below that of average wage workers.
For many, the profession has lost its status as a high-income elite career.
Timothy Kim, 35, who became a lawyer last year, said that even after completing mandatory training, employment is not guaranteed.
“Offices in Seocho — Seoul’s legal district housing courts up to the Supreme Court — pay trainees with law school degrees less than 3 million won per month,” he said.
“Graduates are required to complete a training program provided by the Korean Bar Association, but the cost alone exceeds 1 million won,” he added.
Many in the field trace the oversupply to the adoption of a U.S.-style law school system.
Introduced in 2009, the system replaced the state judicial exam — once known for its extreme selectivity — with a model designed to produce about 1,500 new lawyers annually.
Under the current system, candidates who complete a three-year law school program are eligible to sit for the bar exam. The reform aimed to diversify the legal profession, expand access to legal services and reduce the social and economic costs of prolonged exam preparation.
Less than two decades later, however, many graduates say the system has recreated intense competition — likening it to high school seniors competing for select top universities and in this case, top law firm positions and public-sector roles.
Too many students, too few places
Competition begins at entry.
A total of 19,057 applicants sat for the Legal Education Eligibility Test (LEET) last year, more than double the 8,246 recorded in 2016. With law school admissions capped at around 2,100 annually, entry has become increasingly competitive.
Amid shrinking job opportunities at major corporations, many university graduates are turning to law school to buy time and enhance credentials — contributing to persistently low pass rates, with roughly half of candidates failing each year.
The number of bar exam candidates has nearly doubled from 1,663 in 2012 to 3,336 last year, with 3,757 applicants this year.
Despite the surge, the Ministry of Justice has maintained an annual quota of around 1,500 to 1,700 successful candidates.
Under current rules, graduates are allowed up to five attempts within five years to pass the exam. Those who fail lose eligibility permanently, even if they re-enroll in law school.
As a result, the number of so-called “bar exam dropouts” reached 1,918 last year and is expected to exceed 2,000 this year.
The debate over lawyer supply has sharpened, with starkly opposing views on whether the pass rate should remain near 50 percent or rise toward 80 percent.
Supporters of an increase argue that maintaining a 50 percent pass rate undermines the original intent of the law school system — to provide broader and fairer access to the profession.
They also point to potential growth in legal demand, particularly in corporate advisory work, cross-border transactions and AI-related services.
“A system that excludes qualified candidates due to a fixed pass rate cannot be right,” said Lee Hwang, a professor at Korea University School of Law.
He added that the current structure distorts legal education, as students focus solely on passing the bar exam rather than developing practical skills. He warned that this limits the competencies required of legal professionals and argued that raising the pass rate is essential.
Lee also noted that low pass rates have intensified stratification among law schools.
“Schools are effectively ranked by pass rates, and both students and faculty face significant pressure — particularly at institutions with lower rates,” he said.
The Korean Bar Association disputes this view.
Jung Hyuk-joo, a spokesperson for the association, said the probability of passing within five attempts already exceeds 80 percent.
“A more fundamental solution is to reduce law school enrollment rather than raise the pass rate,” he said.
Lee also argued that reinstating the old state-administered judicial exam would not resolve the issue and could instead distort the market. Maintaining both systems, as in Japan, would also risk oversupply, he added.
Jung, however, pointed to Japan as a counterexample, noting that despite having a population roughly 2.5 times larger than South Korea, it produces about 1,500 new lawyers annually.
He also cautioned against comparisons with the United States, where lawyers cover a broader scope of work due to the absence of parallel professions such as patent attorneys, tax accountants and administrative agents.
“The scale of the legal market in the U.S. is fundamentally different,” he said, adding that any discussion on raising the pass rate must first clarify whether the benchmark is Japan or the United States.
Discussions are nevertheless underway at the presidential office on a proposal to select an additional 50 to 150 legal professionals annually through a separate judicial exam track.
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