Law firm BKL(Bae, Kim & Lee) has recruited former Supreme Court Justice Yi Gi-taek.
Former Justice Yi Gi-taek graduated from Kyungseong High School and Seoul National University Law School, passing the 23rd bar exam.
He was appointed as a judge at the Seoul Civil District Court in 1985 and served as a judge at the Eastern and Western branches of the Seoul District Court, as well as at the Seoul High Court and as a research judge at the Supreme Court. He was appointed as a Director General at the Seoul Central District Court, Director General at the Patent Court, Chief Director General at the Seoul High Court, and was appointed as a Director General at the Seoul Western District Court, finally becoming a Supreme Court Justice in 2015. In 2022, after completing a six-year term as a Supreme Court Justice, he was appointed as a chair professor at Sogang University School of Law.
During his tenure as a judge, he authored several commentaries including 'Commentary on Civil Law', 'Commentary on Civil Procedure', 'Commentary on Civil Execution', which are essential readings for practitioners, as well as numerous papers.
Former Justice Yi is expected to contribute to the litigation group and litigation support team at BKL. The litigation support team is led by Song Woo-cheol (16th bar exam) who previously served as a Director General at the Seoul High Court and Chief Research Judge at the Supreme Court, along with former Supreme Court Justice Cha Han-sung (7th bar exam), Lawyer Lee In-jae (9th bar exam), who served as the Chief Judge of the Seoul Central District Court, Lawyer Kang Yong-hyun (10th bar exam), who has held positions as the President of the Korean Criminal Case Study Association, the Korean Civil Execution Law Association, and the Korean Civil Procedure Law Association, Lawyer Noh Young-bo (10th bar exam), a Director General at the Seoul High Court and Chair of the Bankruptcy Law Research Association, and Lawyer Hong Ki-tae (17th bar exam), who served as the head of the Judicial Policy Research Institute.
Additionally, former Justice Yi plans to develop measures to establish a sustainable and systematic social contribution model for the law firm through the BKL Public Interest Activity Committee and the Dongcheon Foundation. As a Supreme Court Justice, he ruled that the installation of wheelchair-accessible seats on wide-area buses facing sideways rather than frontward constitutes discrimination against the disabled.
Meanwhile, BKL has recently recruited Lawyer Yoon Hwa-rang (34th bar exam), a former research judge at the Supreme Court, Lawyer Park Hyun-kyu (34th bar exam), who worked as a chief prosecutor in the Tax Crimes Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and as a planning officer for the Capital Markets at the Financial Services Commission, and Lawyer Jeong Hye-eun (35th bar exam), who formerly served as a Director General at the Seoul Family Court.