Only 4.3% in total... None last year
As the law school system introduced in 2009 marks its 15th year of implementation, it has become apparent that the situation has unfolded in a way completely different from the original intent of its introduction.
According to reporting by Legal Times, among the law school entrants at Seoul National University, Korea's top national university, those aged 30 and above accounted for only about 4%. Over the past 15 years, out of a total of 2,294 entrants, only 98 were aged 30 or older, representing just 4.27%. This year, only 5 entrants aged 30 or older were admitted to Seoul National University Law School, and last year there were none.
Data provided by Seoul National University to Rep. Jeon Ju-hye of the People Power Party showed that the majority of law school entrants at Seoul National University are in their 20s.
At the first admission in 2009, those in their 30s accounted for 13.3% (20 people), followed by 11% (17 people) in 2010, and 7.1% (11 people) in 2011, maintaining double-digit numbers. However, the figures dropped to 4.6% (7 people) in 2012 and 1.3% (2 people) in 2013. There was a brief increase to 6.5% (10 people) in 2014, but since 2015, the percentage has consistently remained in single digits: 2.6% (4 people) in 2015, 2.6% (4 people) in 2016, 2% (3 people) in 2017, 4% (6 people) in 2018, 2% (3 people) in 2019, 0.6% (1 person) in 2020, 3.3% (5 people) in 2021, 0% (0 people) in 2022, and 3.3% (5 people) in 2023.
The original purpose of introducing law schools was to produce legal professionals with diverse careers, maturity, and social experience to provide high-quality legal services. However, the entry barrier at Seoul National University Law School has been highest for applicants with social experience.
Rep. Jeon Ju-hye stated, “Contrary to the original intent of introducing law schools, the weight of qualitative evaluations such as social experience during admissions has decreased, making it advantageous for younger students. There is a need for institutional improvements so that the doors of law schools can be wide open to working professionals in their 30s and 40s who have accumulated social experience.”
A representative from Seoul National University Law School said, “Age is not considered when selecting new students. However, it is true that both applicants and admitted students are overwhelmingly in their 20s.”
The situation is similar at other law schools. At Yonsei University Law School, the number of entrants aged 29 or older was 16 (12.4%) in 2018, 11 (8.3%) in 2019, 11 (8.7%) in 2020, 9 (7.1%) in 2021, 2 (1.6%) in 2022, and 8 (6.5%) in 2023.
At Korea University Law School, the numbers were 9 (7.1%) in 2018, 9 (7.3%) in 2019, 2 (1.7%) in 2020, 12 (9.7%) in 2021, 12 (9.8%) in 2022, and 10 (8.1%) in 2023.
A senior judge commented, “With the current structure, law school students will mainly be those in their 20s supported by their parents. Ultimately, rather than having social experience, the legal professionals will be much more homogenized than during the judicial examination era, coming from so-called SKY universities’ liberal arts departments, who studied for entrance exams in Daechi-dong in the Gangnam 8 school districts.” He added, “In the future, legal professionals will continue to be trained by going straight to law school after university graduation, and this phenomenon will become more entrenched. There is a need to give advantages to applicants with other careers or professional backgrounds.”
Park Su-yeon, Legal Times Reporter
※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.
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