“Starting this year, we will shorten the internship program period from two weeks to one week. The amount of assignments will be reduced, but more concentration and logical skills will be required.”
Barun Law Firm is making major changes to the way it recruits new lawyers this year. To ease the burden on law school students, the internship period will be shortened by half and the focus will be on practical competency evaluation. In order to expand communication with the younger generation, working partner lawyers Seol Jae-seon (42, 42nd class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute) and Lee Eung-kyo (39th class, 42nd class) joined the Bareun Recruitment Team.
Barun selects new lawyers through an internship training program for second-year law school students. It is held once a year in the summer and once in the winter, and this year the internship period is shortened from 2 weeks to 1 week. It was decided to drastically reduce the lecture program and focus on practical, written, and interview screening. Attorney Park Seong-ho (48, 32nd class), who is in charge of recruiting new lawyers at Barun, said, “As we conducted the process for two weeks, I heard concerns from some students that they were hesitant to apply for the Barun internship because the timing overlaps with that of other law firms.” He added, “The burden on students is high.” “In order to alleviate this, we will proceed with the program more densely instead of shortening the period,” he explained.
During the intern practical training process, procedures such as writing assignments (advisory opinions and litigation documents), intensive interviews, and written exams (examination) are conducted.
Assignments include writing an opinion and recording one task each. The assignment must be completed within a limited time, starting at the corporate office in the morning and ending at 6 p.m. Attorney Park said, “It will be difficult for someone who has studied only shallowly to solve the problem,” and added, “We are presenting a task that will allow you to evaluate how much you have developed your legal thinking and what your understanding of the law is.” Attorney Lee said, “A tip for the assignment is to prepare based on actual records and actual events, not virtual records.”
The ‘Barun Gosi’ is a written test to evaluate applicants’ legal thinking skills and capabilities. Five subjective questions are largely asked in substantive and procedural law in the civil and criminal fields. The test time is approximately 3 hours. Attorney Park said, "As law school is a place where people from various fields come from non-law schools and have gained work experience, I think it is difficult to accurately evaluate an applicant's legal thinking and capabilities with just a few grades." “We decided to maintain the Bareun Examination for evaluation purposes,” he explained. Unlike previous years, this year's Bareun Exam will be held on the last day of the internship program.
Starting this year, intensive interviews will also be conducted during the internship training period. In the intensive interview, questions will mainly be asked to confirm the competency, character, and legal knowledge as a legal professional. The final interview conducted by the steering committee with the final applicants selected after completing the intern practical training is in the form of a personality interview and questions are asked based on the contents of the self-introduction. Attorney Lee said, “A legal mind and legal knowledge are important, but we are also looking at crisis management and the ability to deal with stress.” He advised, “At the final interview, appeal to your will to grow steadily at Barun and your self-management skills.” did.
The type of talent Bareun requires is someone with morality, sincerity, and initiative. Attorney Seol explained, “Barun is a place where there is a consensus that doing things right without going overboard ultimately leads to the benefit of the client and the law firm,” adding, “morality and sincerity are the foundation.” Progressiveness is emphasized as Barun explores new legal industries such as AI and virtual assets. Attorney Park said, “I expect new lawyers to have a sense of ownership and actively present ideas in the process of pioneering blue oceans.”
In addition, Attorney Lee said, “At Barun, a senior lawyer from a previous government department teaches you how to write a document one by one, directly editing it with a red pen.” He added, “At the same time, Barun is experiencing rapid growth, so there is also an open market for us to pioneer. Both traditional and innovative. “It’s an attractive option that allows you to catch all the branches,” he said.
This year, Barun hired a total of 13 new lawyers. There are 8 men and 5 women, all of whom graduated from law school. The average age of new lawyers is 28.7 years old, and the age range is between 25 and 31 years old.
Barun provides an opportunity to receive one-year overseas training and dispatch in the fifth year of becoming an associate attorney. All salaries during the training period are guaranteed. In addition, we provide welfare benefits such as communication expenses, health checkup expenses, business transportation expenses, dinner expenses, education expenses (professional training expenses), and book purchase expenses.