: The Ideal and the Reality of the Korean Legal Profession

... It is difficult to say, however, whether the Korean legal profession in general has played the pivotal or appropriate role that society expected from it during Korea's transition to democracy and market economy. ... Nevertheless, it seems that the current legal system, as well as the legal profession, is incapable of meeting such demand. In this regard, the paper argues that all of the basic problems of the Korean legal profession today have a significant bearing on legal education process. ... Two distinctive features of the Korean legal profession are its small size and homogeneous composition. ... Along with the shortage of lawyers, another distinctive feature of the Korean legal profession is its homogeneous composition, which not only hampers diversification of the legal community but also facilitates unethical practice. ... This preferential treatment has been possible by the unusual guild mentality, which was produced by the unified training and the homogeneous composition of the legal profession. ... Such preferential treatment raises questions about impartiality, but the Korean legal profession has long accepted this unethical practice nonetheless. ... The contents of the PCPG proposal, as well as subsequent developments, are worthy of close examination, because the proposal addresses nearly all shortcomings of the Korean legal system and legal profession, and because it has served as the foundation for on-going reform measures, especially regarding legal education reform. ...