By Kim Da-ye
A record percentage of female legal trainees passed the national bar exam and entered the state judicial training institute Monday.
Of a total 298 judicial apprentices, 41 percent are women, breaking the previous 2013 record of 40.3 percent, according to the state-run Judicial Research & Training Institute.
The total number of judicial trainees who newly joined the two-year institute program dropped this year by 211 from a year ago because the country’s legal training system is undergoing a change.
In the past, all judges, prosecutors and lawyers had to first pass the national bar exam and then undergo training at the institute. The bar exam is expected to be abolished step by step by 2017 while courses offered by law schools at universities are replacing much of the legal training previously provided by institute.
A total of 306 people passed all three stages of the bar exam last November, and women accounted for more than 40 percent of the successful candidates. The highest scorer was Shin Ji-won, a 23-year-old female student at Ewha Womans University.
It is undeniable that more women are entering the legal profession and securing positions of power and influence.
In December, 28 of 32 institute graduates appointed as judges were women. In general, only top performers at the institute choose to become judges rather than prosecutors or lawyers.
It was also the final year when trainees could become judges right after graduation. From this year, graduates need to gain two years of experience as a lawyer in order to become a judge.
Furthermore, in February, 23 out of 43 newly appointed prosecutors were women.
In November, Cho Hee-jin became the first female prosecutor to take a director-level position since the prosecution was established in 1948. She was named assistant prosecutor general at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office.
The average age of both women and men admitted to the Judicial Research & Training Institute is 29.72 this year. The oldest is 43, the youngest, 23.
Seoul National University graduates accounted for the largest part of the newly admitted group at 26.17 percent, followed by Yonsei University’s 14.43 percent and Korea University’s 11.74 percent.
Those without degrees in law accounted for 21 percent ― up from 17.29 percent in 2013.