On Being A Woman Lawyer in Korea
by Brendon Carr
Don’t worry Dad, I haven’t started cross-dressing yet! Instead, from the Korea Law Blog mailbag (okay, really the comments section) comes this inquiry, from Liz, a lawyer whom I presume to be a Korean-American, early in her career (she uses the Internet), very smart and switched-on (of course—she really enjoys reading Korea Law Blog!):
Dear Brendon
I really enjoy reading your blog!
So are female lawyers still a rare sight in Korean society? Probably…
As much as I fancy working in Korea one day, I have a feeling that the work life aint as glamourous as Korean dramas make it to be!
So how are female lawyers considered/treated in Korea?
Liz
To this I replied as follows:
Liz,
Thanks for the kind words.
Korea is, as you know, a male-dominated society. In many respects it’s a “man’s playground”. However, the law firms are in most cases more open to equal opportunity than most other domestic institutions; female attorneys are not at all rare.
Women are flocking to the legal profession in numbers which I understand now approaches 50% of the crop of new lawyers. Few law firms can resist the tides—when women comprise most of the talent base at the accessions level, we can predict 10 years later they will make up most of the new partners. Sometimes I thumb through the “Class of XX” Judicial Research and Training Institute directory to look for good-looking young female attorneys. There are more and more every year.
I think our firm has a particularly good record in the gender-diversity area: My department at Hwang Mok Park is mostly staffed by female associates. My partner Doil Son and I work with a core team of two female associates—Ms. In-Kyu Hwang and Ms. Sun-Hee Kim—and one male associate, Mr. Si-Mok Kim. There are a couple of younger partner attorneys whom we like and they are female as well. The top leaders of our firm are, of course, male, as they’ve been at it for decades and the profession was almost all male when they joined. But as for me and Doil, we’re happy to recruit women and our observation on the recruiting patterns at our firm is that Hwang Mok Park is glad to hire women as well.
In my opinion, we—at least Doil and I—treat male associates and female associates equally; which is to say, horribly. We’re brutal to all of them! You’ve come a long way, baby.
As for whether law practice is as glamorous as seen on teevee—the answer is boy howdy! It’s all that and more.
If you’re a foreign lawyer thinking about trying to find a job in a Korean law firm, you might also want to check out my earlier post How to Get a Job at a Korean Law Firm.
I’ve asked Sun-Hee, In-Kyu, and Hailey Kim—a young woman foreign lawyer in our department—to post their comments if they have time. They know more about being female attorneys in Korea than I do. I hope that if there are any other ladies reading Korea Law Blog (come on now, have you seen my handsome visage above?) they might leave their thoughts as well.
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Hello, Liz. I’m a first year lawyer and I work at HMP with Brendon.
Female lawyers are not at all rare now in Korea.
When I started at the Judicial Research and Training Institute starting in 2005 (in Korea, you go to the JRTI for two years of state-sponsored training after you pass the bar exam), 30% of the students were female. The next year, 40% were female.
Also, last year, around 50% of new judges were female. In Korea, judges are appointed from the ranks of JRTI graduates, as an initial entry-level job.
Generally, still it’s a bit harder to get a job if you are a woman in Korea. (For, example, if your merits are the same, companies tend to choose men over women.) But, I think the situation is getting better rapidly, because the prejudice against women lawyers is rapidly disappearing.
As a young lawyer working at a firm, I don’t feel any disadvantage due to the fact that I’m a woman, and I really enjoy my work.
What is the reason for your enjoyment of your work, Sun-Hee? It’s the awesome coolness of the senior attorneys, isn’t it?
Dear Liz,
I agree with Sun-Hee. I have been working at this firm for a little over a year now but I haven’t felt any direct discrimination based on my gender.
Of course, there is still a bit of boys club feel with the senior partners - all of the founding partners in my firm are male, and we have only one female partner. But I think you would encounter that anywhere in the world where the given industry was heavily male-dominated.
There are minor details that may seem utterly ridiculous to an American-educated woman - like having to wear pantyhose 365 days a year (or it’s frowned upon) - but a lot of that stems from the conservative nature of the legal profession in Korea and male attorneys are subjected to a different set of implicit rules and mannerisms expected of them in Korean culture.
All in all, I am enjoying myself here. I think the question you should ask yourself isn’t whether you can cope here as a woman but whether you can cope here as an American-educated person.
YES, that too!
Also, I like the feeling of “solving problems” for other people.
We have a policy that female attorneys must wear pantyhose all year long?!
Not sure if this question is fully applicable, but here goes:
Are there attorney-specific cultural rules and mannerisms expected of lawyers in Korea, beyond the typical cultural rules that most people in a professional setting are expected to follow?
This is a very good question, and I’m not sure I know the answer. Of course there are certain behaviors that attorneys are expected to exhibit in Korea. Most of them are general things that you would expect in any professional setting. And there are some you wouldn’t expect—see “365 days of pantyhose”, above.
But there is one thing I’ve observed over the years that I find strange. Korean attorneys urge the foreign lawyer (you’re a Korean-American, which puts you into the category of “foreigner”—although just barely, which is a burden for you) to “remember [his] dignity”. But the concept of “dignity” is not and apparently cannot be fully explained; I know because I’ve asked. One needs to have grown up here to correctly intuit what’s “dignified” and what isn’t. A lot of the “dignity” will come off as pure “arrogance” to American eyes, and I’m pretty sure it’s not meant that way.
My guess is you’ll need to bone up on your Confucian relationships, and observe Korean behavior closely. Do more listening than talking and you’ll be off to a good start.
I too work in a professional services firm in Seoul and we have some riduclous rules about dress. Male staff are expected to wear only white shirts with full length sleeves. However, I understand that this is the policy set down by our partner rather than company policy.
When it comes to discrimination, I don’t think the women in our firm are discriminated against. What I have heard though is that people who don’t drink may be passed over for promotion. Apparently the culture is changing, but there is a perception that you need to be a hard drinker to go out and socialise with clients for “business development”. I’m not sure when companies in Korea will realise that staff will be much more effective when they’re not hung over.
I am a South Asian female attorney in the United States (Chicago). I cannot say that women are by any means a rare sight here, but sometimes as a South Asian I feel as if I stand out. Numerous attorneys have been very direct about asking me my background during interviews and it always makes me pause and wonder if I will be judged on my background or on my qualifications. Do people have different expectations from female attorneys than male attorneys in Korea?
Well my wife is Korean lawyer and used to work until recently for one of the big law firms in Korea. Several times I visited her office and met plenty of female lawyers, including several female partners.
So I think that it’s not a burden being a women lawyer in Korea
Brendon -
First, thank you for the time and effort which you put into this blog. Having stumbled onto it several months ago, I check in periodically for some insight into the legal environment in Korea.
Second, I am usually a passive blog reader but felt the need to respond to this particular post. As a Korean-American female lawyer, how could I not? And while I agree with most of the comments, I must take exception to some others.
#1 - Hailey wrote (and I’m assuming that it is limited to skirt suits?) that wearing pantyhose year-round “may seem utterly ridiculous to an American-educated woman”. However, dress codes for most US firms require pantyhose, even in this age of “business casual”. Rest assured that bare legs (tanned or otherwise, and however humid a summer day) are still regarded as unprofessional and chronic offenders are eventually “reminded” quietly. Of course, there are exceptions but those tend to be limited to a firm’s size or client base and/or geographical location (i.e., NYC vs. Miami, corporate clients vs. entertainers/entrepreneurs). I completely agree with Hailey that for a female Korean-American lawyer working in Korea, cultural issues may be a larger factor than gender-based ones; sadly, we have the same gender issues in the US.
#2 - Conservatism within the legal profession is not limited to Korea; like it or not, it is an intrinsic trait of the profession around the world. Although perhaps even more so in Korea due to its culture?
#3 - In response to Simply Woman, I suggest that you consider your background and the fact that you “stand out” as positives. At the end of the day, law is a business and firms do not hire someone who is not qualified, however unique the background. On the flip side, a unique background could be the deciding factor in your favor.
#4 - In response to Brendon’s post on 10-27-07, I agree that American and Korean cultures have differing standards re: what is and is not dignified. Thankfully, I never heard “remember your dignity” from any local Korean counsel, but I imagine that for most Westerners, merely being told by someone to “remember your dignity” is offensive. While perhaps unintended (and here, I am not totally convinced), such a statement could be interpreted as condescension.
Lastly, in response to Mirak, I’m not sure that the presence of many female lawyers in a particular firm necessarily equates to the lack of a burden. Reality is that gender issues are part of the modern workplace, and I’ll bet that every one of them will have something to say in a confidential survey.
Over the years, I have considered the possibility of practicing in Korea, only to be disappointed by the continued delay in liberalizing Korea’s legal services sector. Current status of the KORUS FTA notwithstanding, I fear that I may retire before it actually happens Thus, Brendon, please keep up your work on this blog!
Happy New Year to all!