[Opinion] The Era of 10,000 Lawyers

It is safe to say that the United States is a land of lawyers. There are one million people with bar certificates. According to a report by Presidential Competitiveness Committee, 750,000 out of one million lawyers are actually practicing law. The United States is the undisputable No. 1 country in terms of the number of lawyers for every 100,000 citizens (281), way ahead of Germany (111) and the U.K. (82). More than half of all high profile figures such as lawmakers, high ranking civil servants, corporate executives and columnists have a legal license.

As a multi-ethnic country, the United States needs a strict rule of law for social order. In a written test for driver’s license, the answer to the question “Why should you not speed” is “Because it is law” rather than “Speeding heightens the possibility of traffic accident.” Americans sue because their neighbor’s dog is too loud, or food at school is not good. There are numerous liability law suits filed by celebrities. Given even Korean Americans frequently use the term “sue,” it is not hard to guess that lawyers are in demand.

Korea had over 10,000 lawyers in April 2007. It took Korea 102 years to have that many lawyers since it had its first three lawyers in 1906. In the 1970s, there were only a dozen people passed the bar exam, but in the 1980s the number jumped to more than 300. Since then, Korea has had some 1,000 lawyers, each year. Total number of lawyers in 1981 was only 1,000 but rose to 5,000 in 2002. Now, six years later, we have 10,000 of them in Korea. From 2012, law schools will produce 2,000 lawyers every year and the number should reach 20,000 by the year 2015.

As the number of lawyers increases, citizens can be offered with better quality and low cost service, rendering legal consulting service more accessible. But is it so? There are downsides, too. Mass production of law school graduates will undermine the quality of lawyers significantly. So-called “ambulance lawyers,” who show up at the scene of accidents and emergency rooms, is leading to an explosion of litigation. And lawyers will descend in the Seoul metropolitan area, leaving some areas without lawyers. The era of 10,000 lawyers is a mixed bag.

Editorial Writer Yuk Jeong-soo (sooya@donga.com)