Court upholds suspension for lawyer penalized for 'damaging profession's dignity'
Published: 09 Feb. 2026, 10:13
Updated: 09 Feb. 2026, 18:35
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[KOREA JOONGANG DAILY]
A local court dismissed an appeal by a lawyer who was suspended for damaging the dignity of the profession by dancing in a club with an advertisement of their practice in the background, sources said Monday.
The Seoul Administrative Court recently ruled against the plaintiff, the lawyer, in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Ministry of Justice’s decision to dismiss an objection to disciplinary action.
The lawyer had been advertising on electronic billboards at clubs and other nightlife venues since 2021 with phrases such as “Korea’s hottest lawyer,” “No. 1 in Gangnam" and “King of Seocho" and was found to have damaged the dignity of the legal profession. In September 2023, the Korean Bar Association’s disciplinary committee suspended the lawyer for one month.
The committee determined that the lawyer had requested the clubs post the advertisements, making it a violation of the bar association's advertisement regulations.
Although the lawyer operated a law office rather than a law firm, the phrase “managing partner of a law firm” was displayed on club billboards, and investigators found that the lawyer had given a nightlife venue manager business cards bearing the law office staff’s names and entrusted them with promotional activities. In Korea, a "law office" typically refers to a sole practitioner, while a "law firm" refers to a practice with multiple partners.
The committee also recognized as grounds for discipline the posting of content on the law office’s website that violated regulations on lawyer advertising and the failure to report that staff had resigned from the Seoul Bar Association.
The lawyer objected to the Justice Ministry’s lawyers’ disciplinary committee, saying, “I never directly requested that advertisements be posted on nightlife venue billboards.”
The Justice Ministry dismissed the objection, finding that although the lawyer did not directly request the billboard advertisements, the lawyer failed to stop them and instead encouraged and abetted the situation by actively enjoying it, including dancing in front of the billboard, and therefore bore responsibility for violating the duty to maintain dignity.
The lawyer then filed suit, arguing that once it was acknowledged there was no direct request for the advertisement, the Justice Ministry could only overturn the bar association’s disciplinary decision and had no authority to establish the facts differently.
The court, however, found the disciplinary action lawful.
"Recognizing conduct as 'encouraging and abetting' rather than a 'direct request' did not constitute a separate ground for discipline and did not appear to have infringed on the lawyer’s right to defense," said the court.
"Lawyers must faithfully perform their duties in accordance with their mission to defend fundamental human rights and realize social justice, and must strive to maintain social order and improve the legal system. It is difficult to view the disciplinary decision as having clearly lost validity under social norms or as an abuse or deviation of discretion."
It also noted that the lawyer was “repeating arguments that were rejected in the Justice Ministry’s decision, and there were reports that in March 2024 the lawyer forced a club employee to kneel on a major road in front of a Gangnam club and hurled verbal abuse,” adding that it was “questionable whether there is sincere reflection on the reasons for the discipline.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JUNG SI-NAE [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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