"I’m Not a Lawyer Anymore"… Lawyer Han Moon-cheol Reveals YouTube Earnings

"Just once over 100 million won... Now 10 million won"
"YouTube doesn't pay... My Blackbox Library"

Han Moon-cheol, known as Korea's first traffic accident specialist lawyer, spoke about his YouTube earnings.

On the 12th, Lawyer Han appeared on the first episode of MBC's 'Heart-Stirring Lecturers' (hereafter 'Lecturers'). The program features leading icons from various fields in Korea, including Oh Eun-young, Kim Sung-geun, Han Moon-cheol, Monk Geumgang, Seol Min-seok, Park Myung-soo, and Kim Young-mi, competing in weekly lecture contests. Lawyer Han was the first lecturer on the premiere episode.

Attorney Han Moon-chul. [Photo by Asia Economy DB]

During his lecture, Lawyer Han was asked whether the rumor of earning 10 billion won from YouTube was true. He responded, "Is it only 10 billion won?" and then clarified, "It's exaggerated. The actual amount is about one-tenth of that."

Han, who started his YouTube channel in 2018, said, "In 2020, there was only one month when my YouTube earnings exceeded 100 million won," adding, "That was when I had just over 500,000 subscribers. I really worked like crazy." Currently, his subscriber count is about 1.78 million.

He said, "At that time, I said, 'I'm not going to be a lawyer anymore. Why be a lawyer?' but people can't see even an inch ahead," adding, "The 100 million won dropped sharply the next month to 50 million won, and now it's 10 million won. Sometimes it's even less than 10 million won."

He continued, "The YouTube channel itself doesn't make money," but explained the reason he continues YouTube is because "YouTube is my black box library."

Han revealed that when he first started as a lawyer, he handled criminal cases for 2 to 3 years, taking on cases involving thieves, pickpockets, gangsters, fraud, and gambling, and money came in easily.

However, at some point, he felt a sense of disillusionment and said he stopped handling criminal cases because it felt like he was collecting money earned by pickpockets.

Later, during his military legal officer service, he became a legal counsel for a bus company based on a book he wrote about traffic accidents. He recalled, "Although my earnings decreased compared to when I handled criminal cases, I felt more at ease."

He explained, "Since the bus company kept winning lawsuits, the compensation amounts that families who lost loved ones and victims should have received were reduced, and I received success fees. Thinking this was wrong, I stood on the side of the victims and proceeded with about 6,000 traffic accident lawsuits."