Loen Company Cuts Half of Its Staff in Restructuring... Also Putting Gangnam New Office Building Up for Sale

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] Law service platform 'Lotoc' operator Law&Company is recruiting voluntary retirees aiming to reduce 50% of its employees. They also plan to withdraw from their new headquarters in Gangnam, Seoul.

According to the industry on the 21st, Law&Company, which has had a long-standing conflict with the Korean Bar Association (KBA), is facing a business crisis due to a decline in registered lawyers and a hit to profitability. Accordingly, they have started accepting voluntary retirement applications aiming to cut 50% of their staff. They plan to give up the new headquarters, which was expanded and relocated last June, and switch employees to remote work.

Law&Company has seen the number of registered lawyer members decrease whenever disputes with the KBA occurred, dropping from a maximum of 4,000 to 2,000, a halving. The estimated damage is over 10 billion KRW. In particular, last October, the KBA dealt a direct blow by imposing disciplinary actions with fines up to 3 million KRW on nine lawyers who joined Lotoc.

Regarding this, the Ministry of Justice's decision on the KBA's disciplinary actions against Lotoc-registered lawyers is expected as early as March. The Ministry of Justice's Lawyer Disciplinary Committee received appeals last December from nine lawyers who were reprimanded or fined for joining Lotoc, and subsequently received an additional 38 appeals.

Since the Ministry of Justice Disciplinary Committee must make a decision within three months of receiving an appeal, the cancellation of the disciplinary actions is expected to be decided early next month. The committee may extend the decision deadline by up to three months. It is known that no resolution to extend the deadline has been made yet.

Meanwhile, the Fair Trade Commission, prosecution, and police have judged the complaints and accusations from lawyer organizations against Lotoc as unfounded. The Constitutional Court ruled in May last year that some parts of the KBA's revised advertising regulations were unconstitutional, while others were constitutional.

The KBA holds the position that since the Constitutional Court ruled some parts of the advertising regulations constitutional, there is no problem disciplining lawyers who joined Lotoc.