Teachers, Engineers, and Accountants Become Lawyers... 'Diversity' Lowers Entry Bar in Legal Sector [Law School's Impact on the Legal Market ①]

94% of Law School Entrants Have Non-Law Majors
In Contrast to 82% Law Majors During the Judicial Exam Era
Expanded Career Paths Leveraging Diverse Academic and Professional Backgrounds

Legal Market Doubles in Size Over 11 Years
Bar Exam Pass Rate Drops to Around 50%
Specialized Training Shrinks Under Exam Pressure

Attorney Park Eunseon (Law Office Reason) worked as a high school teacher for 13 years. She now mainly handles cases related to school violence and teacher rights. When she was considering leaving her teaching career and exploring new paths, the route of becoming a legal professional through law school (law school for professional legal education) instead of the judicial examination had just opened up. Attorney Park said, "Compared to the era of the judicial examination, the barriers to entering the legal profession for those with non-law backgrounds appear to have undoubtedly lowered."

It has been nine years since the abolition of the judicial examination. Whereas graduates of law departments made up the mainstream in the judicial exam era, today, those who studied engineering, business, medicine, and education also appear in the courtroom. The arenas for lawyers now extend beyond courts and law offices to corporations, government agencies, and industrial sites. The legal market has more than doubled in size since the abolition of the judicial examination. However, there are differing opinions on whether the diversity of majors and work experiences has actually translated into greater legal service expertise.

Nine out of Ten Law School Entrants Are Non-Law Majors

According to the Law School Council on September 21, of the 2,150 incoming students across 25 law schools nationwide this year, 2,021 were non-law majors, accounting for 94%. The breakdown was: 651 from social sciences, 504 from business, 382 from humanities, and 157 from engineering. When law schools first opened in 2009, the proportion of non-law majors was 66%. Over the past 17 years, this has risen by 28 percentage points. In contrast, the proportion of law majors decreased from 34% to 6%.

The judicial examination era was dominated by law majors. From 2008 to the last exam in 2017, 3,989 out of the 4,856 final successful candidates had law degrees, representing 82.2%. The average study period was lengthy. Even in 2007-2009, when about 1,000 trainees were selected annually, the average preparation period for successful candidates was 53–56 months. As the number of available places decreased, the average study period stretched to 64 months by 2014. There was criticism that more students were dedicating years solely to exam prep ("the idle examinee problem"), and that university education was becoming overly focused on preparing for the judicial exam.

Law schools were introduced to break this structure. Instead of selecting legal professionals based on a single exam, the plan was to recruit people with diverse academic and work backgrounds and provide them with three years of legal theory and practical training. The aim was also to nurture specialized legal professionals in fields such as corporate, international, environmental, and intellectual property law.

This intent was reflected right from the admissions stage. In the 2012 academic year, law schools admitted 14 healthcare professionals, 11 teachers, 16 certified public accountants, six patent attorneys, and four tax accountants. In the 2022 academic year, admissions continued to include 19 certified public accountants, 11 labor consultants, eight patent attorneys, and six tax accountants. The scope of legal work has expanded to in-house counsel, compliance, intellectual property (IP), finance, environmental, international trade, and healthcare, among other areas. A representative from the Law School Council said, "With entrants from diverse backgrounds such as engineering, medicine, and business, the legal profession is now seeing increased demand for non-traditional legal services."

As the areas handled by attorneys have broadened, the size of the domestic legal market has more than doubled from 3.8 trillion won in 2013 to 9.59 trillion won in 2024. While the complexity of business activities and growth in new industries and regulation were major factors, this also aligns with the expansion of legal services into corporate consulting and new industry fields.

Is Law School Becoming Just Another Bar Exam Prep Course?

Although law schools originally aimed to foster specialized legal professionals through curricula that emphasized diversity in academic backgrounds and practical experience, in reality, preparing for the bar exam often takes precedence. At Jeju National University School of Law, where Attorney Park studied, specialized subjects such as international and Chinese law were available, but students tended to avoid courses not directly relevant to the bar exam. Attorney Park said, "We couldn't afford the luxury of taking all those specialized courses."

The growing number of exam takers and the resulting lower pass rate also add to students’ burden. According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of bar exam takers grew from 1,665 in 2012 to 3,364 this year, more than doubling, yet the number of successful candidates has remained around 1,700 annually in recent years. The pass rate dropped from 87.15% for the first bar exam to just 50.95% this year. As a result, it has become harder for students to devote time to specialized courses, internships, or legal clinics.

This structure also affects career paths after graduation. According to the Law School Council, while the range of potential workplaces has expanded, the majority of new lawyers still initially concentrate in law firms and litigation practice. The lack of sufficient opportunities to gain varied experiences and explore career options during law school is seen as a contributing factor.

The legal community argues that the pressure of the bar exam is undermining specialized and practical training. The Law School Council stated, "The bar exam was originally designed as a qualification exam, but as it is now operated as a selection test with a pass rate in the 50% range, law schools are being reduced to little more than ‘test-prep academies’ rather than institutions for practical and specialized training. The educational environment must be restored so that students can acquire diverse legal training and practical experience."

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