Icon of innovation in the legal services market… Now I dream of becoming a global law firm.

Daeryun Law Firm
Establishment of branch offices throughout the country and introduction of consulting attorneys... Boldly break the existing mold
Ranked 9th among law firms within 9 years of opening... Overseas through collaboration with U.S. companies and Japanese law firms

Daeryun Law Firm, which first opened as Daeryun Law Office in 2016, has been bringing new topics to the strained domestic legal market. The way it was operated was unique. Modeled after the system of Baker & McKenzie, the world's largest law firm, branch offices were established throughout the country to maximize accessibility to legal services. Unlike the past, when he had to go to Seoul to find a good law firm, Daeryun chose to approach customers directly. Daeryun currently has 44 offices nationwide.

The ‘counseling attorney’ system is also evaluated as an example of boldly breaking the existing framework. Daeryun put a lawyer on site who was only providing ‘consultation’. This is a completely different move from the typical law firm practice, where individual lawyers are responsible for everything from consultation to writing to trial. Daeryun explains that only when proper consultation is conducted first can a clear diagnosis of the case be made and the provision of more systematic legal services become possible.

Daeryun has grown rapidly through this operating method. Last year, it recorded sales of 112.7 billion won and was ranked 9th among law firms. Kim Kook-il, CEO of Daeryun Management, said, “Daeryun’s goal is the global market,” and expressed confidence that “Daeryun’s unique system, which has been developed over a long period of time, will now be widely known overseas.”

―What motivated you to operate branch offices all over the country?

"The existing legal market was very opaque, especially from the perspective of ordinary clients. It was difficult to obtain specific information about lawyers and law firms, so it took a long time to find a lawyer to take on a case, or one had to go through a so-called broker. The psychological barrier gradually increased, and customer trust in the legal market as a whole was bound to drop. Daeryun wanted to overcome this reality. First, he thought that the physical distance should be close. In fact, large American law firms operate throughout the United States and around the world. By benchmarking the advanced systems of these law firms, we have set up 43 branch offices around the country. The key is that when customers receive consultation at a nearby office, lawyers from all over the country with the most expertise in the field are in charge, so we can provide the same level of legal services anywhere in the country.”

―Please explain the specific reason for having a consulting attorney.

"The most important step in the litigation process is 'counseling'. This is because it is at this stage that the essence of the problem can be accurately identified. If the characteristics of the case are not clearly analyzed at the beginning, it is difficult to assign an appropriate professional lawyer. Therefore, a lawyer with more experience than anyone else must be involved in the consultation process. That is why there are separate consulting lawyers. In large general hospitals, there are emergency medicine doctors and pathologists for early emergency treatment and accurate disease diagnosis. You can think of it as the same method. Long-term skills are recognized, This method is similar to the system of advanced law firms in the United States, where consulting attorneys are selected through intense internal competition to accurately identify the characteristics of each case and then bring in experts from various fields, including accountants, labor accountants, and patent attorneys, to assign the case to an appropriate team. “It can be seen as a similar method in that it takes on the role of a partner lawyer and promotes efficient and professional handling of cases by establishing a detailed distribution system according to the type of case. Another unique feature of Daeryun is that lawyers who have been judges and prosecutors directly participate in investigations and appear in court, forming relationships with clients and often being directly involved in case proceedings.”

―What do you pay most attention to when operating such a system?

"As mentioned before, in the end, the most important subject is the 'customer.' No matter how good the accessibility is or how well the consultation is conducted, if the customer is not ultimately satisfied, it is a failed system. In the case of Daeryun, as its offices are distributed throughout the country, some may voice concerns about management. Daeryun has also worked for a long time to perfectly complement these points, and the results are the 'Litigation Management Headquarters' and the 'Customer Satisfaction Center'. The 'Litigation Management Headquarters' is the Litigation Management Center. It is a group that systematically manages the entire process from the moment a case is accepted until its completion. A management department is divided into △civil affairs, △criminal affairs, and △household affairs, and each management department is assigned a senior lawyer, legal affairs director, and legal clerk to proactively address issues such as poor defense or communication errors that may arise during the case handling process. The ‘Customer Satisfaction Center’ began operating about 1 year and 6 months ago, and is the first company to share all of the feedback left by customers with all members of the office. In fact, we have recently conducted a survey of 3,800 clients who have entrusted cases to Daeryun. “More than 98% of customers expressed ‘satisfaction’ as a result of the customer management team’s quick response to any inconveniences.”

―What does the future law firm model that Daeryun pursues look like?

“Daeryun now wants to go beyond Korea and leap forward as a law firm that meets ‘global standards.’ It is introducing Daeryun’s unique system, which has been well designed domestically, to overseas markets. To this end, it is preparing to establish branch offices in various overseas locations, including New York in the U.S. and Tokyo, Japan. It has established cooperative relationships with leading overseas law firms and institutions. With Koriny, a comprehensive real estate solution platform in the U.S., and Verivest, a large Japanese law firm, etc. A representative example is the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU). Based on this, we are increasing customer accessibility and convenience by establishing offices in major cities around the world, and are also steadily recruiting experts such as foreign lawyers and customs experts to strengthen our overseas legal service capabilities.”

―Is there any last thing you would like to say?

"The number of domestic lawyers is increasing, but the legal market still appears to be not growing. If the market does not grow, the development of the legal profession in Korea will inevitably slow down. In order for the legal market to change and move forward, there is a need to break away from existing practices and customs. Daeryun has been innovating and changing for a long time. This was the case in operating branch offices and introducing a consulting lawyer system. Furthermore, Daeryun is also working in the field of 'Legal Tech (legal information technology)'. We are receiving great attention and are planning to launch our own artificial intelligence (AI)-based legal service, and we plan to launch a comprehensive legal platform soon. We believe that Daeryun’s goal is to promote the system it has gradually developed into a global law firm and raise its status as a domestic law firm.”

Guest reporter Moon Mi-young

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