Kang Mingu, Former High Court Chief Judge, "Half of the Personal Information Protection Act Regulations Should Be Lifted, and the Bar Association Must Stop Fighting Startups"

Lecture at the 'Legal Tech AI Special Exhibition' hosted by Law Times on the 27th
"Court rulings should be disclosed, and the judiciary budget increased to adopt AI"
"The legal community must also ride the AI Cheollima"

On the 27th, at COEX Hall A in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Kang Min-gu, CEO and lead attorney of Law Firm Doul, is giving a special lecture at the "2024 Legal Tech & AI Show (LTAS)" hosted by Legal Times and Messe Sang. Photo by Legal Times

Former Seoul High Court Chief Judge Kang Min-gu (65, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 14, representative lawyer of Law Firm Doul), known as one of the top IT and legal tech experts within the courts, argued that regulations under the Personal Information Protection Act should be significantly relaxed to advance the domestic legal tech industry. He also emphasized that lawyer organizations should stop fighting against legal tech startups and instead focus on how to utilize artificial intelligence (AI).

Attorney Kang stated that if judges use AI to draft rulings, the effort previously spent on writing judgments can be fully devoted to reaching conclusions in cases, urging the judiciary to adopt AI as soon as possible to enable swift rulings.

On the 27th, at COEX Hall A in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, during the '2024 Legal Tech Artificial Intelligence Special Exhibition (LTAS, Legal Tech & AI Show)' hosted by Law Times and Messe Isang, he delivered a special lecture titled "Survival Strategy of the Korean Legal Profession in the AI Era."

Starting his lecture with the phrase "New work new world," Attorney Kang said, "I concluded my 36 years as a judge and retired this January. Now that I am no longer a judge, I can comfortably speak my mind." Having served as Chief Judge of Seoul High Court, Chief Judge of Changwon District Court, Chief Judge of Busan District Court, Director of the Court Library, and returning to Seoul High Court as Chief Judge until retirement in 2020, Kang was mentioned as a candidate for the next Chief Justice after the parliamentary rejection of nominee Lee Kyun-yong last year. He left behind 10,201 rulings during his tenure as a judge.

Personal Information Protection Act Regulations Should Be Reduced by More Than Half... Korean Bar Association Should Stop Fighting Startups

Attorney Kang said, "One of South Korea's worst laws is the Personal Information Protection Act. It does not help big data AI businesses. Regulations should be reduced by more than half."

He added, "If Korea follows European-style regulations, our AI industry will collapse. Europe lost its engineers to the U.S. and lost global AI dominance to American tech companies, so they had no choice but to strengthen regulations until their domestic companies grew."

He continued, "AI regulations should shift from European Union (EU)-style restrictions to American-style promotion policies."

Attorney Kang also criticized the Korean Bar Association (KBA) for its ongoing conflicts with legal tech companies, such as when the KBA viewed Law & Company's Lotoc operation as violating the current Attorney-at-Law Act and disciplined lawyers who joined Lotoc, only to have the Ministry of Justice revoke those sanctions. Recently, the KBA reportedly considers whether to discipline Law Firm Daeryuk Aju and its lawyers over the 'AI Daeryuk Aju' service, the country's first 24-hour AI lawyer service, viewing it as potentially violating the Attorney-at-Law Act and requesting explanations.

He said, "There are 3,500 legal tech companies in the U.S. The KBA should stop fighting, stop instilling fear in young lawyers, and instead think about how to ride the AI Cheollima (thousand-ri horse) and utilize it. Do they have the power or law to stop domestic companies and block U.S. giants like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Meta by citing Attorney-at-Law Act violations?"

On the 27th, at COEX Hall A in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Kang Min-gu, the representative lawyer of Law Firm Doul, is giving a special lecture at the "2024 Legal Tech & AI Show (LTAS)" hosted by Legal Newspaper and Messe Sang. Photo by Choi Seok-jin

Publish Rulings and Introduce AI to Focus on Case Conclusions... Urgent Need to Increase Judiciary Budget

Attorney Kang said, "Let's wake up the sleeping Sleeping Beauty. Tens of millions of rulings are accumulated, and Supreme Court rulings are posted in real-time, but due to regulations like the Personal Information Protection Act, rulings cannot be provided."

He explained, "In China, if a ruling is made at 10 a.m., it is publicly disclosed with real names to the entire nation by 11 a.m. All rulings except divorce or sex crime cases are disclosed on the same day."

He added, "In the U.S., rulings are generally disclosed with real names, but if a party pays a fee and requests anonymization, it is anonymized."

Attorney Kang said, "South Korea is supposed to be an IT advanced country, so how long will we keep piling rulings in the Supreme Court warehouse? I have advocated for publishing rulings for 30 years. Then incompetent judges, prosecutors, and lawyers will be fully exposed to the public."

He said, "Around this time next year, internal court AI will be launched. I have proposed this to the Chief Justice, and its feasibility is under review within the courts. There are concerns that precedent changes will become difficult, but we do not want creative rulings. What parties want is a quick ruling. They want a swift ruling that they win."

Attorney Kang emphasized that increasing the judiciary budget is essential for speedy trials.

He said, "South Korea's rulings are not late even now; among 180 countries globally, we rank first. We are world-class. In Japan, assistant judges write one ruling per person per month, but we write three rulings per week (12 per month). Complaints about trial delays come from comparisons to when I worked late nights desperately."

Attorney Kang said, "The judiciary budget in South Korea is less than the one-year budget of Wonju City. It is 0.3% of the total national budget. They never give carrots but only scold daily for 'delayed trials.'"

On the 27th, at COEX Hall A in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Kang Min-gu, the representative lawyer of Law Firm Doul, is giving a special lecture at the "2024 Legal Tech & AI Show (LTAS)" hosted by Legal Newspaper and Messe Sang. Photo by Legal Newspaper

Reduce Time Spent on Drafting Rulings to Focus on Case Conclusions... Blocking Latest Technology Is Like Heungseon Daewongun’s Isolation Policy

He said AI adoption can drastically reduce the time spent drafting rulings.

Attorney Kang said, "If AI is introduced in courts, you can use it like 'Summarize the plaintiff's 30-page complaint into one page,' 'Summarize the 50-page answer into two pages,' 'Find related lower court rulings,' and then copy and paste. You can write rulings as easily as drinking soda while lying down."

He added, "Currently, if 70% of effort goes into drafting rulings and 30% into reaching conclusions, with AI, you can allocate 70% to conclusions and 30% to paperwork. You can be reborn as a Super Judge who can write 10 rulings a week."

Attorney Kang said, "It is incomprehensible that legal professionals who live by documents are not using such technology."

He shared an anecdote from his judge days when he protested against Hancom for blocking access to Microsoft's intelligent personal assistant software Cortana search engine. He said, "If you block the latest technology, it is the same as Heungseon Daewongun’s isolation policy."

Attorney Kang predicted, "Individual lawyers can provide legal advice like Kim & Chang, Bae, Kim & Lee, and Sejong. A solo lawyer assisted by AI could be better than 100 lawyers at a large law firm. If AI becomes widespread in the legal market, the monopoly of large law firms will decrease."

Generative AI Is the Optimal Field for Law... Must Ride the AI Cheollima

At the end of his lecture, Attorney Kang reiterated, "The optimal field for generative AI is law. The legal profession must ride the AI Cheollima." He emphasized that the core is human 'analog competitiveness' and 'thinking muscles' gained by reading books and learning from masters.

He said, "AI is not Aladdin's genie lamp and at this stage is only an assistant tool; final judgment must be made by humans." He added, "AI hallucinations (AI generating false information) and errors must be judged by human thinking muscles."

He concluded his lecture with the words, "The way to master AI is to use it daily and feel it. Let's ride the Cheollima and charge forward like Mongolian cavalry."