Lawyers Flock to Seoul... "Seoul Lawyers" Top 30,000

Legal Services Are Also Increasingly Concentrated in Seoul

The number of lawyers registered in Seoul has surpassed 30,000 for the first time. Most of the roughly 1,700 people who pass the bar exam each year flock to large law firms and Seoul, where the market is bigger.

The number of lawyers registered in Seoul has surpassed 30,000. The Legal Times.

According to data from the Ministry of Justice, as of September 21, 2026, Seoul had 30,005 registered lawyers, including practicing lawyers and associate members who were not practicing or were inactive. That accounted for 76.5% of the 39,246 registered lawyers nationwide. Of the 6,662 lawyers added to the register over the past four years, 5,460 (82%) registered in Seoul.

While the number of lawyers registered in Seoul rose 22.2% in four years, from 24,545 in September 2022, the number in provincial areas was essentially unchanged. Over the same period, the number increased by just 1.9% in Jeonbuk, from 370 to 377; by 5.1% in Gyeongnam, from 470 to 494; and by 9.8% in Gangwon, from 214 to 235. Several regions had only around 200 registered lawyers, including Jeju (200), Gangwon (235), Ulsan (267) and Chungbuk (285). That is less than one-hundredth of Seoul's total.

Law firms are also concentrated in Seoul. Of the 1,715 law firms nationwide, 1,184 (69%) are based in Seoul, including 746 (43.5%) in Seocho-gu and 248 (14.5%) in Gangnam-gu.

Large law firms continue to grow. The number of lawyers at the six largest firms—Kim & Chang, Bae, Kim & Lee, Lee & Ko, Shin & Kim, Yulchon and Yoon & Yang—rose 26.5%, from 3,101 in September 2022 to 3,924 in September 2026. Kim & Chang had 1,169 lawyers, followed by Bae, Kim & Lee with 650 and Lee & Ko with 601.

Park Suyeon, Legal Times Reporter

※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.

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