“The Third Group of Lawyers” to Be Launched on January 25

The third group of lawyers advocating authority watch and protection of rights of the underprivileged will be launched on January 25.

Lee Seok-yeon (in the picture) is the lawyer who led the effort for the ruling of the Constitutional Court which stated that the special law of building a new administrative capital was unconstitutional. He noted on January 14 that a foundation event of “lawyers for the public,” a new group of lawyers in their 30s and 40s, will be held on January 25 in the hall of the Korean Bar Association.

Once this group comes to life, it will be the third group of lawyers after the liberal “MINBRYUN-Lawyers for a democratic society” and the conservative “Constitution Law Advocates,” excluding the Korean Bar Association, a legal group that lawyers in the nation are required to join.

The organization will take the joint representative system, yet lawyers Lee Seok-yeon, Lee Heon, and Lee Doo-a will be the temporary representative, director, and executive secretary respectively. It is also known that more than 100 young lawyers in their 30s or 40s, ranging from the class of 1984 to that of 2004 of the Judicial Research and Training Center, will join the group.

It will be on the moderate side compared to “MINBYUN-Lawyers for a democratic society” or “Constitution Law Advocates” and intends to take legal actions for the public good to help the underprivileged as well as to watch and criticize the power after its official launch.

Lee Seok-yeon said, “The public has lost confidence in the other two legal groups, as they have neglected their duty to watch and check the power and even clung to ideology disputes and are absorbed by the authority,” adding, “The inauguration of our new group of lawyers is a response to the call of the public at a time like this.”

jin0619@donga.com