Last Week, Complaint Filed at Seocho Police Station
"Refusal to Post Lawyer Recruitment Notices 10 Times Over 11 Months"
Bar Association: "Disapproval Due to Non-Compliance with Registration Criteria... No Issues"
Kim Young-hoon, President of the Korean Bar Association (age 60, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 27), has been sued on charges of obstructing the hiring process of lawyers by a legal tech company.
According to the legal community on the 3rd, Legal Tech company Law&Good (CEO Min Myung-gi), which provides lawyer fee support (litigation finance) services, filed a complaint with the Seoul Seocho Police Station last week accusing President Kim of obstruction of business.
Law&Good registered a total of 10 job postings over 11 months from August 11, 2023, to June 14 of this year on the job announcement section of the "Korean Bar Association Employment Information Center" website operated by the Bar Association to hire in-house lawyers. However, all 10 postings were disapproved, and Law&Good sued President Kim, claiming this was obstruction of business by intimidation.
In the complainant's statement submitted to the police, Law&Good stated, "This site is the only domestic job placement site exclusively for lawyers and holds a monopolistic position in the lawyer hiring market," adding, "Since there is almost no information on in-house lawyer recruitment by small companies, most lawyers seek jobs through the Korean Bar Association Employment Information Center. Therefore, law firms and companies must post job announcements on the Korean Bar Association Employment Information Center to hire lawyers."
Job seekers must prove that they are lawyers or law school students to register as members and view job information. Employers must provide a business registration certificate and registration number to join, and only lawyer job postings can be posted. From the job seekers' perspective, they can view only lawyer-targeted announcements in one place, and from the employers' perspective, law firms and companies can avoid exposing sensitive information such as salaries externally. Law&Good claims that the vast majority of lawyer recruitment occurs through the Korean Bar Association Employment Information Center rather than general job posting sites.
As evidence for this claim, Law&Good cited that "as of June 18, 2024, about 8,500 people visit the Korean Bar Association Employment Information Center daily, with a cumulative visitor count reaching as high as 75 million."
Meanwhile, according to the complaint, the reasons for disapproval posted on the Korean Bar Association Employment Information Center website include ▲ failure to register a business registration certificate ▲ unclear resume submission methods ▲ duplicate content flooding ▲ disapproval of hiring U.S. lawyers and other foreign-qualified lawyers ▲ inclusion of age and gender in hiring criteria ▲ conducting recruitment without disclosing the hiring company's name (confidential) ▲ and others.
Other reasons include ▲ content violating the Attorney-at-Law Act ▲ insincere salary information ▲ modifications to initially approved content that include disapproved reasons, among others.
Law&Good maintains that none of the above disapproval reasons applied to their postings, yet the Bar Association continuously refused to post their announcements without clear explanations.
Law&Good stated, "The accused may claim that the complainant's company's announcements were not posted because they contained content violating the Attorney-at-Law Act, but such a claim is groundless," adding, "It has been repeatedly confirmed by government agencies such as the Ministry of Justice, the Fair Trade Commission, and investigative authorities that there is no part of the business content that could violate the Attorney-at-Law Act."
Law&Good further argued, "Despite requests from the complainant company, the accused did not explain the reasons for the decision. Even though it was objectively clear that the complainant company's business (legal tech business) did not violate the Attorney-at-Law Act, the accused arbitrarily judged that the complainant company's business violated the Attorney-at-Law Act."
Last September, Law&Good sent a certified letter to the Korean Bar Association stating, "Unauthorized non-posting of job announcements may constitute obstruction of business, tort under civil law, and violation of the Fair Trade Act. Please resolve the illegal act and post the announcements," but the Bar Association continued to refuse posting the job announcements, according to Law&Good.
Law&Good also claimed, "Since lawyer recruitment is essential due to the nature of the company's business, this lawsuit is necessary for survival," and "The president of the Korean Bar Association, who should uphold the rule of law and social justice, abused power and deliberately obstructed the complainant company's business."
They added, "The accused is the president of the Korean Bar Association and is responsible for planning, directing, and supervising all affairs of the association," pointing out that "deciding whether to post job announcements registered on the Korean Bar Association Employment Information Center operated by the Korean Bar Association is also the accused's duty."
On the other hand, the Korean Bar Association stated that there is no problem with the decision not to approve Law&Good's job postings.
A Korean Bar Association official said, "This is not a matter requiring the president's approval nor a matter the president was involved in, yet the complainant applied for registration 10 times for the purpose of filing a lawsuit," adding, "We regret the strange behavior of preparing for a lawsuit over the failure to register due to not meeting registration criteria while the complainant was already convicted of criminal charges for subsidy fraud."
Law&Good's CEO Min was indicted in May last year on charges of fraudulently receiving about 120 million won in government-supported youth employment subsidies and was sentenced to eight months in prison with a two-year probation. It is known that the Bar Association imposed a one-year suspension on CEO Min as disciplinary action related to this case.
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