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By Yun Suh-young Third-year law school students are anxious ― their job prospects are not as bright as they hoped when they entered the institutions, paying high tuition. They are the first batch of lawyer aspirants graduating in February since the U.S.-style law school system was introduced here in 2009. Their future is blurry though ― most of them don’t have a place to work at if they pass the state exam to win licenses to practice law. About 1,500 are expected to pass the exam in January. But only one third of them ― mostly from Seoul National University and other top-tier schools ― are expected to land jobs at law firms, prosecution offices and other judiciary organizations. With the limited number of jobs available at law firms, professors and students have demanded the government take steps to address structural problems overshadowing the law school system. They argue that state organizations should hire more lawyers and private companies need to revamp their recruiting systems to give law school students greater job opportunities. “The real reason behind students’ anxiety and confusion is the lack of an established recruiting system at companies and in the government sector,” said Kim Hyoung-joo, president of the Law School Students’ Association of Korea. “Some students want to set up their own offices when they graduate. But the problem is they won’t have the opportunity because the government-set mandatory in-service training period for law school graduates will keep them from opening their own offices immediately,” Kim said. For six months, those who pass the state-administered license exam but don’t land jobs at law firms or judiciary organizations must go through the training. The situation is exacerbated by the lack of transparent and efficient recruitment systems. “Companies want to hire in-house lawyers, but they don’t have a set standard on how to recruit them. Small and medium-sized law firms are reluctant to hire new lawyers because of the cost,” Kim said. “They need to wait for the six-month training period to end until they can make use of the new lawyers. But these companies don’t have enough manpower so they need people who can start right away. These are some of the structural problems in the job market,” said Kim. The problems were evident in a recent job fair for law school students. Students who attended the Korean Law School Job Fair in southern Seoul earlier this month complained that they didn’t get a job interview opportunity. “Students were very disappointed after the job fair because participating companies didn’t seem to have a concrete plan about recruiting new lawyers,” said a second-year student surnamed Lee at Dong-A University Law School in Busan. “Many of us second years participated in the event along with our seniors. Students from provincial schools such as Chungnam and Chonnam national universities’ law schools even rented a bus to come to Seoul but went home disappointed because no plans were set for recruiting lawyers next year.” Many students were apparently perplexed by the event. “We were upset because the companies didn’t carry out job interviews as was announced. We’re third-year students busy studying for the state exam and we made extra time to go there but many of the companies said they didn’t even know how they should recruit law school students,” said a third-year at Ewha Womans University Law School. At a loss The 29-year-old, who refused to be named, said she understood the situation because it’s a new process for companies as well. “I think companies are concerned about the pay and treatment of new lawyers. In the past, in-house lawyers were given the title, ‘department head.’ Now since so many lawyers will be hired, I guess companies are confused about what title to give them,” she said. “As for the public sector, in many cases, the number of lawyers they can hire is limited by law. They only hire new ones when someone quits. So there’s hardly an opportunity to work in the public field.” Another student who went to the job fair said she was disappointed by the lack of set recruiting procedures. “Some companies even said we could apply during the open recruitment season when the undergrads apply. They didn’t seem to know what to do with us. That’s a pity,” said a 32-year-old second-year student at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Law School. “Some students want to work at government ministries such as the foreign ministry. But most students don’t know how and when they should apply because there aren’t any announcements or notices about recruitment plans by the government.” Call for change Last week, the heads of 25 law schools called for the government to hire more lawyers at a symposium hosted by the Korean Association of Law Schools (KALS). “We ask the National Assembly, the government and related organizations to improve the current system to allow more lawyers into the field to provide better legal services to the people,” they said in a joint statement. At the moment, 228 lawyers are working in government organizations. Excluding those working at the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of Government Legislation, there are only 130 lawyers working in other public sectors. This means only four to five lawyers are in each department. The law school professors said at least one lawyer per metropolitan council, local and autonomous district office must be hired. “More lawyers are needed at public corporations. To provide high-quality legal services, we need more lawyers working in the public sector,” they said. Students also echoed their views. They said the job market for lawyers needs to be diversified. “We need to find a solution to the root cause of the problem facing law school graduates. Korean society, at the moment, doesn’t have a system that can accommodate these new lawyers in the public sector,” said Kim. “The United States has lots of law school graduates who work as law clerks and in the public sector. We’re just unprepared. We definitely need to change the system to suit the needs.” Some students say their workplace doesn’t necessarily have to be a law firm. “Not all students are seeking a job at law firms. They’re just desperate for a job. Most of the third-year students commonly think that they’d be glad to go to any workplace that would accept them,” said a third-year law school student at Ewha Womans University. “We’re not that picky about the jobs as people think and the media reports. Not all of us need to go to law firms. We just need to get a job. If only there are more opportunities elsewhere, the problem is solved.”
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| ysy@koreatimes.co.kr |
