It Is also Difficult to Appoint Judicial Apprentice

Entering `the era of 1000 passers of state law examination,` starting lawyers who graduate from the Judicial Research and Training Institute this year are experiencing difficulty in getting employed as well as getting appointed as judges or prosecutors.

According to the JRTI on the 21st, among JRTI graduates from the 31st class this year, 200 people who can be appointed are in the class from 1st to 340th, among a total of 712 persons, which decreased by 50 places from the 390 places last year.

The first reason is that the `supply` has increased over `demand`.

Another reason for the rise of the cut off is that applicants prefer to be a judge or a prosecutor, which is relatively more stable than a lawyer who face stiff competition and economic recession. And the expectant recruits decreased from 153 persons last year to 136 persons this year, but their grades are rather low and unable to compete with those with higher qualifications.

One more reason is that large-sized law-firms, which have intensively employed high-ranking students who can be appointed as judges or prosecutors, reduced the employment rate for judicial apprentices.

`Kim & Chang,` the domestic No.1 law firm, is likely to employ 5 people, which is half of the employment rate of last year, and the judicial corporation `Sejong` will decrease the employment rate to 6 from 11 last year.

Therefore, many judicial apprentices are searching for a way out of the judicial world, and 30 persons have already been employed or will be employed by government organizations like the Ministry of Finance and Economy or Finance Supervisory Service, private enterprises, and civil bodies.

But it is very hard for new judicial officers who lack practical experience to open up their own practices. Hence, one hundred judicial apprentices have not yet found a way to practice law.

An official of JRTI projected, "There are some temporary causes like economic recession, but the difficulty in judicial apprentice employment is inevitable due to the continual increase of applicants. As the number of apprentices has increased to 1000 persons, the competition might get more and more severe."

Jung-Eun Lee lightee@donga.com