“The bar association is setting up legal AI scams… Like the U.S., we need to allow first and regulate later.”

"In-house developed technology is censored rather than protected.
Law firm's violation of basic rights... “Competitiveness is also weakening.”
Lawyer files constitutional complaint against advertising rules

“The legal tech market around the world is growing astronomically, but in Korea alone, advanced technology is being rejected like Heungseon Daewongun erecting a memorial stone. It is devastating that the service is being mentioned as a subject of regulation just because it has ‘artificial intelligence (AI)’ added to it without even examining what legal problems there are.”

In an interview with the Korea Economic Daily on the 2nd, Dong-il Park, the representative attorney of Daeryun Law Firm (passed the 8th bar exam, photo), explained the background of filing a constitutional petition against Article 5 of the ‘Rules on Lawyer Advertising’, which restricts advertising of programs using AI technology, as follows. This rule, established by the Korean Bar Association in October last year, stipulates that in order for a law firm to advertise the fact that it is applying an AI program to its work, it must be certified by the Bar Association and supervised by a responsible attorney. It is also prohibited to allow consumers to directly use AI programs.

Afterwards, the Bar Association enforced disciplinary action against Daeryuk Aju, a law firm that developed the free legal consultation chatbot ‘AI Continent Aju,’ and Daeryuk Aju eventually discontinued the service. Daeryuk Aju began an appeal process, saying it would examine the unfairness of the disciplinary action. Even as the Korean Bar Association does not bend its hard-line stance, domestic law firms continue to knock on the legal tech market. Daeryun, which recently joined the ranks of large law firms with annual sales of 120 billion won, introduced ‘AI Daeryun’, which is similar to AI Continent Aju, on the 16th of last month.

Daeryun argues that the lawyer advertising rules violate the basic rights of law firms, such as freedom of professional practice and freedom of expression. Representative attorney Park said, “This is a technology developed by the corporation itself at a considerable cost, but it is unfortunate that rather than taking measures to protect it, they are now censoring and supervising it.” He criticized, “In the United States, where more than half of large law firms have adopted AI technology, when a new service is introduced, it is first allowed and only partially regulated when side effects occur.”

Daeryun's argument is that AI legal services are directly related to people's convenience. He emphasized, “The logic that lawyers should have a monopoly on legal knowledge is an arrogant idea.”

Reporter Jang Seo-woo (suwu@hankyung.com)

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"Lawyer's Association is setting up costs for legal AI fraud... Like the United States, it should be allowed first and regulated later" (Shortcut)