JIPYONG LLC

The part of the new law which brings about overarching changes to the legal education and systems in Korea was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court due to the restrictions it puts on the existing judicial apprentices.  Jipyong Jisung represented a group of judicial apprentices who had passed the Korean bar exam and were getting the required training to become judges pursuant to the old law.  But the new law prohibits judicial apprentices to become judges right away and require them to get experience as lawyers before having the chance of entering the judiciary as judges.  On its groundbreaking November 29, 2012 ruling, the Constitutional Court determined that the new law cannot apply to the existing judicial apprentices who were at the time going through the training to become judges immediately after their apprenticeship under the old law.  Led by Mr. Kong-Hyun Lee, former Constitutional Court Justice himself, Jipyong Jisung team won this important constitutional law decision that makes clear what happens to the existing judicial apprentices who chose the route to become judges pursuant to the old law and who were left in limbo with the enactment of the new law.