The Korean Bar Association (Chairman Kim Jeong-wook) stated on the 27th regarding the recent controversy over the 'revival of the bar exam', "Instead of revisiting an old debate that causes institutional confusion and social conflict, we should diagnose and improve the issues in the current law school operations."
In a statement issued that day, the Bar Association noted, "It is regrettable that the same debate over the training system for legal professionals continues even recently," and expressed "deep concern over some media and organizations that, without properly understanding the law school system, reproduce unfounded suspicions contrary to the truth based on objective statistics and indicators."
Earlier, President Lee Jae-myung responded to a citizen's request to "revive the bar exam" during a town hall meeting held at the National Asia Culture Complex in Gwangju on the 25th, saying, "It seems there are some problems with the training route for legal professionals. I briefly worried that the law school system might turn into a kind of favoritism."
President Lee also stated, "Since the law school system has already been established for a long time, it is unlikely to abolish it," but added, "If one has the ability, can’t they be verified as a lawyer without attending law school?" Following this, controversy over the revival of the bar exam has emerged.
In response, the Bar Association suggested that instead of revisiting an old debate that causes institutional confusion and social conflict, it should diagnose the structural issues of the current law school operations and seek improvement directions and solutions together.
However, the Bar Association pointed out that "the current operation of law schools is increasingly deviating from the purpose of reforming the training system for legal professionals discussed by the Commissioner on Judicial Reform." It further stated, "Particularly, due to the improper operation through the vacancy补充 system, serious distortions between the goals of training legal professionals and the operation of law schools are occurring," adding, "Some law schools are being questioned about their capacity as training institutions for legal professionals, with pass rates for the bar exam falling below 30%, yet they are only eager for survival through improper systems rather than finding fundamental solutions."
In addition, the Bar Association proposed the following measures to reinforce the current law school system: ▲ establishment of a consultative body for judicial reform tasks among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches and the Korean Bar Association ▲ examination of the realities of law schools and discussions on integration with adjacent fields such as tax accountants, patent attorneys, and labor consultants ▲ promotion of structural reforms in law school operations including mergers and cancellations of accreditations.
The Bar Association also stated, "Through the consultative body, we should comprehensively discuss not only the direction of improvement and solutions for law school operations but also national-centric judicial systems and the expansion of lawyer work areas." It continued, "A comprehensive examination is necessary to determine whether law schools are being operated as originally intended when introduced by the Commissioner on Judicial Reform," saying, "The increase in the number of lawyers at the OECD average level was already exceeded around 2022. We need to discuss the normalization of the attorney population and the promised merger of adjacent qualifications subject to increase."
The Bar Association further emphasized about structural reform, saying, "The vacancy补充 system should be abolished, and the legal admission quota should be strictly adhered to in order to normalize the quality of education."