Snapshot of this year’s law graduates shows female judges on rise
For the first time in its history, more than half of all trainees at the Judicial Research and Training Institute expected to become judges and prosecutors are women. The institute is where all passers of the state bar examination initially go for training before becoming lawyers, prosecutors, and judges. The current class is the institute’s 36th in history.
Of the 190 trainees expected to be named judges and prosecutors, some 102, or 53.7 percent, are women, according to the Supreme Court, which runs the institute. Women only account for 24.8 percent (242 trainees) of the 975 trainees currently at the institute.
Judges and prosecutors are selected from among those who pass the bar exam based on their bar scores and grades earned while attending classes.
A total of 160 trainees, both male and female, have chosen to go directly to firms as lawyers after graduation. That figure is higher than the 120 that chose the same route last year, but only 42 are opening their own law firms, less than the 91 who did so in 2006. Sixty-seven have been hired as independent lawyers by other entities, while only 25 have chosen to work for big businesses or government agencies, a number smaller than the 42 who did so last year.
A total of 311 graduates have yet to decide where they’ll be going, compared to 252 last year, but more government offices are hiring their own lawyers lately and the graduates continue to be contacted by big corporations, so institute officials expect everyone to make a final decision about their futures in the coming months. "People are only just starting to look for jobs, and the business and government sectors hold an increasing demand to retain their own lawyers," said Lee Sang-won, a professor at the institute. "I expect a lot more people are going to be hired by corporations and public agencies instead of working independently."
