Law school

Law school (법학전문대학원/法學專門大學院) is a graduate professional school for training lawyers in Korea. There are 25 government approved law schools whose graduates could sit for the bar exam.

History
In 1995, Kim Young-sam Administration considered to adopt the American style law school system in Korea, but failed to realize it because of disputes over the necessity and reality of the new system.

In May 2005, Roh Moo-hyun Administration started again the discussion in the late 2004 based on the report of the Judiciary Reform Committee (사법개혁위원회), and proposed a draft Bill on the Establishment and Operation of Law School (법학전문대학원 설치ㆍ운영에 관한 법률안) and draft Enforcement Decree thereof on the basis of the conclusion of the Judiciary System Promotion Committee consisted of representatives from the government, legal communities, business circles and civic groups.

The draft Act passed the National Assembly in July 2007 subject to the national consensus, and was promulgated in September 2007 together with the Presidential Decree to enforce it.

In October 2007, the aggregate entrance quota of law schools nationwide was settled to 2,000 students. On October 5, 2007 the Legal Education Committee (법학교육위원회) was established to deliberate and confirm the preliminarily approved law schools and each entrance quota subject to 132-item examination criteria. The Committee received 41 application for law school, and conducted review of the documents as well as on-site examination. Finally, on February 1, 2008, the Committee decided a total of 20 preliminarily approved law schools in view of balanced geographical distribution, whose list was in due course confirmed on August 29, 2008 subject to the review of final applications and on-site examination.

Accordingly the current colleges of law (법과대학) of the law school-approved universities will be dismantled by February 2017. Until then law students admitted to the college of law are to finish the academic courses.

List
The Korean Association of Law Schools (법학전문대학원협의회) was establish to represent 25 government-approved law schools nationwide.

Admission
A score of the Legal Education Eligibility Test (LEET), undergraduate transcript and other personal documents are required.

With respect to the admission, scholarship and other academic affairs, applicants are requested to consult each law school mentioned above.