[Meeting the Poet]
"Life is the process of finding what makes me satisfied and happy"
"If you must wander, wander in a way that brings a sense of achievement"
"Without achievement, you fall into the fatigue of wandering"
"Even small achievements build confidence and lead to new pursuits"
The day before the interview, I sent a text message to Attorney Kim Tae-min (50, passed the first bar exam). I asked if he wanted to see the questions prepared by the interviewer in advance. He replied that it was unnecessary, saying, "No, I like live broadcasts."
From there, an unavoidable and undeniable curiosity about him arose. Most legal professionals I had interviewed before preferred to receive questions in advance, perhaps due to their professional self-awareness favoring predictability. In contrast, Attorney Kim showed a distinctly different attitude.
This unique aspect of him was also confirmed when we met in person. Attorney Kim was casually dressed in a neat shirt layered with a knit sweater. This was clearly different from the typical entrance of legal professionals wearing suits and ties, and combined with his remarkably youthful appearance, he even gave off the vitality of a mid-level employee at an IT company. The freedom from formal constraints is a characteristic of those with high self-esteem that I know, so I asked him about his upbringing.
"Both my parents are from Gyeongsang Province, and I was born in Seoul. My parents moved up to Seoul, and I was born near Wangsimni, then attended middle and high school in Cheonho-dong and Myeongil-dong. My father worked at a company, and my mother took care of the household; we were an ordinary family. One day, my father said our family motto should be 'Everyone fulfills their own responsibility.' At the time, it felt like a cold motto emphasizing only personal responsibility, but now I think he wanted to teach that when each family member does their part, trust is built, and harmonious family relationships are maintained. Following that, my father fulfilled his role as the head of the family, my mother focused on supporting and raising us, and my younger sibling and I, as students, just needed to study hard. I guess that's when I learned about responsibility and freedom."
From a worldly curiosity perspective, this might be the motive for interviewing him, as Attorney Kim Tae-min is, remarkably, on his tenth profession. He chose to become a lawyer in his late 30s. After entering Seoul National University’s Department of Food and Nutrition based on his scores, he failed to adapt and quit after five years. He then enrolled at Sangmyung University but soon dropped out, completed his military service, and later entered Incheon National University, where he finally earned his bachelor's degree. His nomadic career path continued into his 30s. He has held various positions such as academy instructor, overseas sales representative for a small-to-medium enterprise, contract public official for foreign investment attraction, and public official at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. The decisive moment was when, despite discouragement from those around him, he gave up his position at the Ministry to enter law school and take the bar exam. What drove him to wander so much?
"Looking back now, I think my life in my 20s, 30s, and now hasn't been much different. I tried things that others might have thought unnecessary or odd. Naturally, I failed many times because not everything can succeed. Still, I wanted to find what suited me and believed I had to keep trying new things to do so. Constantly searching for what fits me isn't wrong. Life is a process of finding what makes me satisfied and happy. The same goes for schools, majors, and jobs. The longest I worked somewhere was 2 years and 2 months at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety; elsewhere, I stayed for 1 year 8 months or just a few months, moving around. When I felt it wasn't right, I quit boldly. I had to make a point of no return to feel desperate. I never thought quitting because something didn't fit meant my life was ruined. I still think that way."
What does "still think that way" mean?
"I don't think being a lawyer is my true calling. If I had wanted to be a lawyer, I would have prepared from the bar exam days. But while I was working other jobs, law schools were established, and I thought becoming a lawyer might give me more financial freedom than being a public official, so I chose it. It was one of the jobs I could pick to make a living. The attraction of this job is that it pays better than my previous jobs (laughs), and since I don't particularly like meeting people, I find fulfillment in meeting clients who seek me out, listening to their stories, and helping them with my experience and expertise."
The number of registered lawyers has surpassed 30,000. Naturally, the professional self-awareness of these individuals has diversified like the spectrum of light passing through sand. Yet some still regard lawyers as a 'status' or 'authority' and focus on exclusive interests. Saying that life’s customs are all the same is both easy and hollow. What made Attorney Kim Tae-min appear fresh to me was that his professional unconsciousness reminded me of Taoist minimalism pursuing anonymity. A kind of carefree freedom felt from someone who has let go and erased things. Most people confirm their existence and feel pleasure by competing, winning, and dominating others, but he seemed somewhat detached from this conventional crowd.
"I never wanted to climb to high positions during my life, nor have I. It's the same now. I'm not part of a large law firm but an individual lawyer. I do this for a living and don't seek influence. I don't drink, so I don't enjoy socializing, making 'brotherly' relationships, or such things, nor am I accustomed to them. But I can't say I reject the mainstream culture or order of the legal market because I didn't graduate from law school and become a judge or prosecutor before becoming a lawyer. Also, since I started late, I knew and accepted that I couldn't join the mainstream, and I chose this profession accordingly."
Anyway, he is currently the only food-specialized lawyer in Korea who is a former Ministry of Food and Drug Safety public official. He actively promotes his identity as a food-specialized lawyer. I asked him to share the most impressive case he handled as a food-specialized lawyer.
"After liberation, there was a food case with the first-ever fine of 12 billion won. There is a flavored oil used in restaurants, a mixture of sesame oil and cooking oil served for dipping grilled pork belly. Benzene, a carcinogen, was detected in the flavored oil. Benzene is present in bottled water and air, but in the first trial, investigators, prosecutors, and judges seemed to misunderstand that benzene was intentionally added to food. Company officials received prison sentences of 3 years and 6 months and fines totaling 20 billion won. The company was a small-to-medium enterprise with annual sales of about 8 billion won. I took over from the second trial and argued that benzene was detected in trace amounts in the final product and originated from intermediate raw materials, which are filtered out during the final processing. We won the case, and the verdict was confirmed. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt due to the lawsuit's image damage. That case became a turning point that made my name known in the food industry as a food-specialized lawyer."
Throughout the interview, he consistently made an effort to objectively explain being a lawyer as a profession. Perhaps he thinks grand concepts often associated with lawyers?public interest, service, justice, protecting the weak?are hollow before the nobility of making a living. Or maybe he wanted to say that the family motto inherited from his father, fulfilling one's responsibilities in one's position, and being content with oneself could be the ethics of our generation or era. Hearing the following, I could more concretely gauge his professional sensibility.
"Before becoming a lawyer, I had several jobs, and the highest salary I ever received was, of course, some time ago, 2.5 million won. But my peers who became lawyers probably started earning 4 to 5 million won. So, 2.5 million is my baseline, but for them, it's 4 to 5 million. After becoming a lawyer late, I found that 3 million won is the basic case fee, and there are cases worth 5 million or 10 million won. I was grateful for that. The baseline is different. My thinking differs from other lawyers because generally, people in Korean society live with a monthly income of 3 million won, living in one-room or jeonse housing, dreaming of a better life. My emotional sensibility is connected to that. I started my first job at a manufacturing company in Namdong Industrial Complex, Incheon. The company president said college graduates needed to be 'de-educated' and made us train in the factory immediately after joining. I trained on the manufacturing floor for three months, which was a time I felt things I couldn't learn in school or books."
He spoke calmly and cheerfully, and his expression clearly showed he affirms his current life, but I sensed a trace of deep loneliness in him. The loneliness of enduring countless temptations and enticements he must have shaken off thousands or tens of thousands of times during his long, dark search that no one understood or recognized. Yet he endured and now performs the ethics of the profession he found on his tenth try.
"There are lawyers like Kim Ye-won who strive to raise social awareness for people with disabilities, but the reality is that some former judges and prosecutors become 'merchants' as soon as they become lawyers. I am still searching for what the important values in life are and what I can do well. I keep pondering what would truly make me happy and satisfied. But I really don't know. Being a lawyer is advantageous for making a living, but there might be something else that can make me happy and satisfied."
His words reminded me of the saying, 'Those who are not deceived wander.' People willingly compromise with countless realities to settle and seek stability. Though called compromise, it is self-deception. Those deceived by money and capital, the myth of success, religious gospel, or political beliefs overlay their lives entirely with the pursuit of those things. So, there is no need to wander; they just follow the path they set. But those who are deceived by nothing ultimately wander. Winds will endlessly blow inside them. To me, Attorney Kim Tae-min looked exactly like such a person. I asked if there was anything he envied.
"I envy wealthy people too (laughs). But what I envy most is a life with leisure, time to spare. Above all, I have a sixth-grade daughter, twin boys in second grade, and a seven-year-old youngest daughter, and they are at an age when they really need their dad. I envy those who spend a lot of time with their children the most. Honestly, I haven't met anyone happier than me. I never thought I would live and be happy like this, so I am truly grateful now."
He revealed plans to create a customized curriculum for newly licensed lawyers who have never learned sales methods or how to specialize or expand their fields, in collaboration with the Legal Newspaper's Legal Edu Center. As part of this, he agreed to publish a book containing the necessary information and has submitted the manuscript to the Legal Newspaper. Through book publishing and education, he wants to show that there are lawyers like him who survive by finding niche markets in the fiercely competitive legal market.
Finally, when asked to give a word of advice to the younger generation who cannot avoid wandering, he said:
"If you have to wander, I advise you to experience a sense of achievement even in small things. Without achievement, you fall into the fatigue of wandering. Even a small achievement gives you confidence and becomes the driving force to find something else. Rather than chasing something too big, it's better to keep wandering with small attempts. Based on my experience, that seems to be the secret to persevering until now."
The 'live broadcast' ended warmly. He said he was going straight home to play with his children. It was just past 3 p.m. then.
Kim Do-eon (Poet & Novelist)
※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.
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