The subject of legal services is the ‘customer’.

Recently, some media and established law firms are labeling new law firms that operate in different ways as ‘network law firms’, thereby creating a negative perception. Although new law firms may lack capital compared to established law firms, they are confident that they are not inferior in their desire for innovation and the ability to implement it. However, we deeply regret the attempts to check the growing law firms and distort their essence through this ‘frame’.

Strategies such as △operating multiple branch offices △digital marketing-centered customer approach strategy △efficient case handling system, etc. must be understood in terms of the philosophy and operation method pursued by each law firm. However, standardizing these into one framework stems from a lack of understanding of the direction of development of ‘future legal services.’ The most important thing is whether the legal system works around customers.

This was when I was a young lawyer. The client was crying in the courtroom hallway. When I looked closely and asked, ‘Did I lose the case?’, the trial had not even started. But soon a roar was heard. On this floor, a fairly famous lawyer was yelling at his client. I realized the backwardness and authoritarianism of the domestic legal market as I saw customers who paid for legal services and were reprimanded again. At that time, I first felt that in legal services, the customer should be the subject of the service.

Daeryun Law Firm, which started from this awareness of the problem, has ‘customer-centered legal service’ as its core philosophy. Most established law firms have offices in Seoul and bring local clients to Seoul. On the other hand, Daeryun has offices close to living areas for convenient access from anywhere. Even after the appointment, the customer management team regularly checks the level of satisfaction and communication, and if necessary, a system has been created to replace the attorney in charge and provide refunds. This process received enough attention that even large Japanese law firms wanted to benchmark it.

Another key to change is marketing methods. Until just a few years ago, the legal market was more closed than anywhere else. In order to find out what legal information was available, I had to mobilize my family and friends to do some digging. To that extent, it has become natural for this market to be ‘operated in the dark’ centered around judicial brokers. This ultimately resulted in excessive fees being passed on to customers. In order to eliminate this method and increase transparency and accessibility of information, we have made online marketing our main method. Just by looking at the website, you can now understand the sentences and issues. However, this method eventually led to an overheated advertising market, and high advertising costs once again led to the burden on customers.

Today, the case handling system of global law firms is similar to the hospital treatment system. Professional personnel are assigned to each stage, including consultation, writing, and trial attendance, to increase work efficiency and quality. The key is to establish a structure in which the general manager takes center stage and each stage collaborates closely to prevent this division of labor from becoming irresponsible. The reason we operate a single One Firm system, which is rare in Korea, is for strategic consistency and communication with customers. Attorneys at Jeon Gwan are no exception, and under this structure, they also contribute substantially to the overall case handling, including attendance at trials and strategic advice.

In addition, we generously reinvest in institutional innovation, such as developing AI legal services, improving customer service, and expanding into global markets. Legal services are now evolving from expert-centered to customer-centered. What is more important than the size or form of the structure is what philosophy it operates on. Changes in the market have already begun, and Daeryun will respond to them with action.

Park Dong-ilRepresentative attorney (Daeryun Law Firm)

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