🚨 Law School Black Hole: Liberal Arts Students' Career Focus and Legal Professional Training System

Today Korean Social News | 2025.06.27

📌 Liberal Arts Students Flock to 'Law School Black Hole'…Educational Gap Created by Professional Job Preference

💬 Due to job market difficulties and preference for professional careers, liberal arts students are entering law schools in large numbers, worsening the 'Law School Black Hole' phenomenon. About 80% of LEET test takers are from liberal arts backgrounds, and law school has become a major career path for liberal arts students.

However, law school enrollment is only 2,000 students, and bar exam passers are only about 1,700, leading to an increase in unemployed law graduates. This has sparked discussions about reviving the judicial examination and adjusting the number of lawyers produced. The problem of educational gaps due to high tuition and private education costs is also serious.

Summary

• Law School Black Hole is when liberal arts students flock to law schools as a job alternative.
• The original purpose of training legal professionals with diverse academic backgrounds is becoming meaningless.
• Limited enrollment and number of passers are worsening problems of unemployed law graduates and educational gaps.

1️⃣ Definition

Law School Black Hole means the phenomenon where liberal arts students facing job difficulties flock to law schools to enter professional careers, causing talent drain from other fields and intensified competition within law schools. Just like a black hole pulls in all surrounding matter, law schools are intensively absorbing liberal arts students.

This is the opposite result from the goal when law schools were introduced in 2009: 'training practical legal professionals with diverse academic backgrounds'.

💡 Why is this important?

• Liberal arts talents have fewer opportunities to enter other fields.
• The diversity goal of law school introduction is not being achieved.
• Educational gaps are worsening due to high education costs and private tutoring.
• Competition within the legal field is becoming fierce due to lawyer overproduction.

2️⃣ Causes and Current Status of Law School Black Hole

📕 Liberal Arts Job Market Difficulties and Professional Career Preference

• Structural problems in the liberal arts job market are the cause. Main backgrounds include:

  • Job opportunities for liberal arts students greatly decreased with reduced corporate hiring.
  • Competition for financial sector and public enterprise jobs became fierce, requiring stable alternatives.
  • Social preference for professional careers like lawyers and doctors remains high.
  • Legal service demand increased with expanded remote work after COVID-19.
  • Preference for stable professional careers over startups or small companies strengthened.

• LEET application status shows liberal arts bias. Main statistics include:

  • About 80% of 2024 LEET applicants were from liberal arts backgrounds.
  • Law, political science, and public administration majors show the highest proportions.
  • Science and engineering majors are less than 20%, actually decreasing from early law school days.
  • Business and economics majors also account for a significant portion.
  • In humanities, Korean literature and English literature majors are increasing.

📕 Structural Limitations of the Law School System

• Limited enrollment and acceptance rates worsen the problem. Main current status includes:

  • Total enrollment of 25 law schools nationwide is only about 2,000 students.
  • Bar exam pass rate is around 85%, with about 300 students failing annually.
  • LEET applicants exceed 15,000 every year.
  • Top law schools sometimes have competition rates exceeding 20:1.
  • 'Law school repeaters' taking multiple attempts are rapidly increasing.

• High education costs act as entry barriers. Main costs include:

  • Private law school annual tuition ranges from 15-20 million won.
  • Total education costs for 3 years reach 50-60 million won.
  • Academy and online course fees for LEET preparation cost hundreds of thousands of won annually.
  • Including living expenses, total costs often exceed 100 million won.
  • National scholarships and school scholarships alone cannot solve the burden.

Major Problems of Law School Black Hole

1. Diversity Damage: Decrease in science/engineering graduates leads to shortage of patent and IT legal specialists
2. Private Education Dependence: Expansion of expensive private education market for LEET preparation
3. Increased Opportunity Costs: Burden from 3-year education period and high costs
4. Unemployed Law Graduates: Increase in bar exam failures and job failures
5. Regional Bias: Regional imbalance due to preference for top Seoul law schools

3️⃣ Impact and Alternatives of Law School Black Hole

✅ Social Impact and Problems

• Imbalance in talent allocation is worsening. Main impacts include:

  • Excellent liberal arts talents have fewer opportunities to enter other fields.
  • Talent shortage appears in traditional liberal arts careers like media, publishing, and education.
  • Serious talent drain from public sectors like civil service, NGOs, and social enterprises.
  • Preference for stable professional careers strengthens over startup or venture fields.
  • Risk-averse tendencies increase throughout society.

• Educational gaps and social stratification worsen. Main problems include:

  • Economic background becomes important due to high law school education costs.
  • Seoul top university graduates have overwhelmingly high law school enrollment rates.
  • Regional university or vocational school graduates have limited entry opportunities.
  • Parents' economic power decisively influences children's legal career entry.
  • Internal class structure in the legal field becomes more entrenched.

✅ Improvement Plans and Alternative Seeking

• Law school system improvement plans are being discussed. Main plans include:

  • Special admissions or bonus point systems for science/engineering graduates are being considered.
  • Plans to increase bar exam passers to expand entry opportunities are proposed.
  • Income-linked scholarship and student loan system expansion is being pursued.
  • Regional law school development and regional specialized program development are needed.
  • Expansion of special admissions for experienced professionals or special field experts is considered.

• Revival of judicial examination and dual system discussions are proceeding. Main points include:

  • Opinions exist to partially revive judicial examinations to provide diverse entry paths.
  • Proposals suggest easing competition through dual systems of law schools and judicial examinations.
  • Arguments exist to expand lawyer production scale to promote democratization of legal services.
  • However, concerns about declining legal professional quality and overproduction are significant.
  • Opinions also exist that gradual improvement while maintaining current system stability is desirable.

4️⃣ Related Terms Explanation

🔎 LEET

• LEET is the Legal Education Eligibility Test for law school admission.
• LEET (Legal Education Eligibility Test) refers to the legal aptitude test that students hoping to enter law school take. It started with the introduction of the law school system in 2009 and is held annually in August.
• Main characteristics of LEET include: First, it consists of three areas: language comprehension, reasoning and argument, and essay writing. Second, it evaluates logical thinking and reading comprehension rather than legal knowledge. Third, it can only be taken 3 times total within 5 years. Fourth, scores are calculated between 120-180 points.
• LEET preparation requires an average of 1-2 years of preparation time, and many test takers prepare through academies or online courses. High scores of 165 points or above are known to be necessary for admission to top law schools. Recently, the private education market for LEET preparation has greatly expanded, raising concerns about educational gaps.

🔎 Bar Examination

• The bar examination is the test law school graduates take to obtain lawyer qualifications.
• The bar examination refers to the national test that law school graduates take to acquire lawyer qualifications. Unlike the former judicial examination, law school graduation is a prerequisite for taking this test.
• Main characteristics of the bar examination include: First, it consists of three stages: multiple choice, case analysis (essay), and practical record analysis. Second, the pass rate is relatively high at around 85%. Third, it can be taken up to 5 times within 5 years after law school graduation. Fourth, it is held twice annually in January and May.
• The bar examination comprehensively evaluates theory and practical knowledge learned in law school, with case-based problems from actual incidents holding important weight. Although the pass rate is high, about 300 people fail annually, creating the problem of unemployed law graduates, with many of them challenging the re-examination.

🔎 Unemployed Law Graduates

• Unemployed law graduates refer to lawyers who obtained legal qualifications but failed to find employment.
• Unemployed law graduates refer to lawyers who acquired lawyer qualifications but are unemployed or working in unstable jobs because they cannot find stable employment. This is a new social problem that emerged after the law school system introduction greatly increased lawyer production.
• Main causes of unemployed law graduates include: First, reduced new hiring and high entry barriers at large law firms. Second, small law firms or individual offices are reluctant to hire inexperienced new lawyers. Third, public sector lawyer hiring is limited. Fourth, establishing independent practice requires difficult initial capital and client acquisition.
• To solve the unemployed law graduate problem, various policy efforts are needed including expansion of public lawyer systems, SME legal support programs, and improved legal service accessibility. Balancing lawyer production scale with market demand is also an important task.

5️⃣ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Is entering law school necessarily a good choice?

A: Law school admission is an important choice that should be made carefully. Advantages include stable professional career opportunities, high social status, and relatively high income. There are also broad opportunities to work as legal experts in various fields. However, disadvantages are also significant. First, there is a burden of high education costs totaling 50-100 million won over 3 years. Second, there is risk of failing the bar examination. Third, there is the problem of unemployed law graduates where employment is not guaranteed even after becoming a lawyer. Fourth, other opportunity costs must be given up during the 3-year education period. Therefore, rather than choosing law school simply because employment is difficult, one should fully consider whether they have clear vision and determination as a legal professional, and economic support. It is also important to carefully examine one's aptitude and areas of interest and compare with other alternatives.

Q: Is there no way to solve the Law School Black Hole phenomenon?

A: Solving the Law School Black Hole phenomenon requires multi-faceted approaches. First, efforts are needed to expand the liberal arts job market itself. Government and companies should cooperate to create new jobs in humanities and social fields, and expand programs supporting startup or social enterprise entry. Second, improvement of the law school system itself is needed. This includes expanding special admissions for science/engineering graduates, strengthening income-linked scholarship systems, and supporting regional law schools for balanced regional development. Third, diverse legal professional career paths should be established. The activity scope of lawyers should be expanded through public lawyer system expansion, SME legal support, and legal service expansion for the socially disadvantaged. Fourth, information about diverse career paths should be provided from the education process, and practical experience opportunities related to majors should be expanded. Finally, society as a whole needs to move away from a culture pursuing only stability and create an atmosphere encouraging challenge and innovation.