Network law firms and legal brokers... “The Korean Bar Association must take the lead in liquidating legal brokers.”

The fiercely contested 53rd Korean Bar Association President election ended on the 20th of last month. Although various agendas were discussed, the biggest topic of this election was network law firms. Although there were detailed differences of opinion on methods, etc., all candidates voiced the same call for active regulation of network law firms.

The author has also received several questions about network law firms from various stakeholders, including lawyers and reporters. At such times, the author would always convey his position, saying, “There is no reason to reject any proposed regulation if it does not go against the Constitution and the values ​​of the free market and contributes to the advancement of the public’s right to know and the expansion and development of the legal market.”

However, it is necessary to think deeply about the essence of the regulations mentioned by each candidate. The author believes that the purpose of the regulation is to ‘improve the rights of the people’ and ‘healthy growth of the legal profession.’ It is believed that these regulatory proposals were created in the hope that the domestic legal market would become more competitive and that high-quality legal services could be provided to the public.

If these are the thoughts of the candidates who want to become the leader representing about 35,000 lawyers, our legal community must now come together and take a step forward. There is a need to pay attention not only to regulating some network law firms that operate illegally, but also to eradicating deep-rooted corruption in the legal profession for a long time.

As one of the deep-rooted evils that must be eliminated from the domestic legal market, the author would like to mention ‘legal brokers’. The activities of a legal broker usually begin with ‘impersonating an office manager.’ He introduces himself as an office manager, approaches clients and lawyers, and collects a fee in return for arranging cases. Until about 10 years ago, these legal brokers were considered a very serious social problem. Statistics were announced that out of the 10,725 cases of legal corruption that occurred from 2011 to the first half of 2014, 5,353 cases, or nearly half, were civil and criminal broker cases, so there is no need to explain the seriousness of this further. Accordingly, the court, prosecutors, and lawyer groups formed a task force (TF) and took action to eradicate legal brokers.

But recently, another concept has emerged. These are ‘expert committee members’ and ‘advisory committee members’ who are non-lawyers who were retired police officers. It is known that they mainly play an advisory role in criminal cases. The problem is that some of them not only provide advice but also try to exert influence by unfairly intervening in the investigation process. As legal brokers operate beneath the surface, changing only their names, the public is forced to shoulder the double burden of economic burden and distrust of the judiciary.

Daeryun Law Firm (Limited), to which the author belongs, has been carrying out midnight activities to eradicate legal brokers. The goal was to educate internal members about the illegality of legal brokerage and actively encourage reporting. Of course, it is true that the efforts of individual law firms alone have limitations in eradicating the ills that have permeated the industry as a whole.

The good news is that investigative agencies have recently shown a more active willingness to investigate legal brokers. In July of last year, the Ulsan District Prosecutors' Office succeeded in detaining and indicting a former police chief and law firm expert on suspicion of collusion with a legal broker. The expert in question is said to have exerted direct and indirect influence on the police investigation team.

As such, there are still a lot of issues that need to be resolved in our country's legal profession. I have no doubt that this election for the president of the Bar Association will be a signal of new change. We hope that the new Bar Association president and executive team, who will take office on the 24th of this month, will not only solve new challenges but also make efforts to eliminate existing bad habits to create a healthier legal market. Daeryun is also ready to take the lead more than anyone else.

Park Dong-il, representative attorney at Daeryun Law Firm (Limited)

[View full article]
Network law firms and legal brokers... “Liquidation of legal brokers, bar association should take the lead” (Go)