Episode 30

It was rare for a mere reporter to gain nationwide fame to the point that even laypeople knew them.

However, the aforementioned drug club incident had heated up the entire country, and Kim Seung-pil had been hailed as a hero who stood up against injustice single-handedly.

The content of his reporting was one thing, but Kim Seung-pil was also a phenomenal writer.

Each sentence of his articles pierced the hearts of the readers and evoked immense anger and empathy.

If it was his skill, he could make even someone who had simply cut in line at a restaurant look like the worst villain imaginable... or so it was described through narration in the original story.

Even now, after taking a leave of absence, there were still quite a few people who remembered Kim Seung-pil's name.

It seemed that this nursing home director was one of them.

I had thought that if he didn't know, I would show him a scrapbook of articles summarizing Kim Seung-pil's past achievements, but I was glad that we could skip the troublesome procedure.

The nursing home director's face turned pale.

"Please, just let it slide this once."

The director shamelessly knelt on the floor all of a sudden.

"Let it slide? You know who I am. The world has hailed me as a true reporter who pursues justice, so how can I just overlook such an unsavory incident?"

'Heh, look at this guy.'

When he was talking to me, he seemed to be inwardly reluctant to use that title, saying it wasn't the truth, but when it was actually needed, he was using it better than anyone else.

His skin was thicker than most.

Perhaps it was this aspect of him that allowed him to succeed as a reporter, I thought.

"Compensation! I'll pay the compensation!"

The desperate director shouted.

"I'll pay whatever you ask, so please, just don't write the article...!"

"It will be a considerable amount."

I interjected casually.

"In the case of an illegal act that causes bodily harm, the scope of compensation isn't just limited to medical expenses. You also have to settle separately for the mental anguish, and if the victim is a worker, you have to compensate for the lost income for the period they were unable to work due to the injury."

Oh Ki-tae's father was working as an environmental cleaner.

Originally, he was planning to return to work after recovering from the aftereffects of his surgery at the nursing home, but that had become difficult due to the fall incident.

"Let's see... if I run the calculations, it would be like this."

I presented the estimate that I had prepared in advance right in front of the director's face.

He made a sound as if he was about to burst out in anger for a moment, but even that subsided as soon as he looked at Kim Seung-pil, and he obediently accepted the document.

"Is it possible to reduce the amount a little?"

"Tsk."

"I guess not! I understand, so please don't make that face!"

It was a perfect example of borrowing the authority of a powerful figure.

But unlike the fox who arbitrarily borrowed the tiger's authority, I was borrowing his face through a legitimate transaction, so I had the right to speak.

In the end, after receiving a written pledge from the director that he would pay the compensation, we left the nursing home.

Mr. Oh Ki-tae was still dazed and kept expressing his gratitude.

"I, I didn't expect it to go so smoothly... thank you both so much! How about a small token of my appreciation?"

"The Legal Clinic is a volunteer activity. Students who don't even have licenses yet can't receive compensation."

If we received anything, it would be a violation of the school rules.

We persuaded Oh Ki-tae, who kept offering us various things, and sent him off, and then returned to school with Kim Seung-pil.

'Hmm, good.'

The result was good.

Of course, I couldn't write in the activity report that I had brought Kim Seung-pil along and threatened them, but I could write that I had reached a settlement based on the actual perpetrator's testimony.

The Legal Clinic's performance scores were qualitative evaluations.

The more complex the case, and the better the client's wishes were met, the better the evaluation.

If it was divided into top, middle, and low, the score for this case would definitely be top tier.

Moreover, students with good performance in the first semester had priority in the distribution of consultation cases in the next semester's Legal Clinic.

Regardless of the difficulty of the cases, it meant that I could definitely avoid cases that touched the core storylines of the original story.

In that sense, the fact that I had accurately pinpointed the flaws of the first case and led it to a beautiful conclusion of a settlement was a very encouraging achievement.

I hadn't even suffered any losses.

"We ended up using it once like this."

I said to Kim Seung-pil on the way back.

"Yes? What do you mean?"

"You said you'd lend me the power of the media three times. Now there are two times left."

"Haha, what are you talking about?"

Kim Seung-pil waved his hand as if it was absurd.

"I didn't actually publish an article, I just went there and showed my face. You can't call that using the power of the media. If anything, I used my own power."

"...What do you mean by that?"

"This case doesn't count."

In other words, he helped out out of pure goodwill.

'Bro...!'

To be honest, even if it was for the sake of getting results safely after stepping into the Legal Clinic, using up one of the precious chances was quite a tough decision.

But the other party was saying that he wouldn't count it, so I had gained only benefits for free.

'Of course, it can't be literally free.'

If I took what was given and washed my hands clean, it would eventually cause problems.

If there was something coming from goodwill, there had to be something going as well.

This was a kind of debt that I had to put aside for the future.

Let's think about that problem later.

* * *

Time flew by quickly.

The Constitutional Law study group quickly completed its mission.

We explained the outlines of the summaries we had each read to each other and finished with a short Q&A session.

There was no study method that would stick in your memory better than asking and answering questions.

Now, the knowledge of the two summaries that were my responsibility was firmly established in my head, and I had also finished a rough understanding of the other ten.

Of course, it wasn't a deep understanding that would allow me to catch up to the academic depth of the Constitutional Court professor.

But that was okay. After all, from a student's perspective, you just needed to know enough to write it down on the exam answer sheet.

"It's all thanks to you."

"...I know."

Lee Ha-roo's hazy eyes also had a spark of life in them.

For her, who had been running away from something ever since a certain 'failure,' it must have been a long time since someone had needed her and recognized her usefulness.

I hoped that this activity would be a small turning point for Lee Ha-roo.

On the other hand, preparing for the Constitutional Law exam wasn't the only thing I had to do.

The reason I had decided to organize Constitutional Law with minimal investment was, of course, to buy time to attack the vast amount of Civil Law and Criminal Law.

I had already laid the foundation for Civil and Criminal Law through single-volume consolidation and repeated reviewing.

But internal exams weren't something that could be solved with just that.

'Because the range is limited.'

National exams like the Judicial Examination or the Bar Exam were fundamentally full-range exams.

Civil Law, Civil Procedure Law, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, and even elective subjects. Even if you only used one basic textbook per subject, you could build a tower of paper on your desk.

Therefore, it was important to have a broad understanding of the wide range.

The specific method that I had chosen as a methodology was single-volume consolidation focused on frequently asked issues.

On the other hand, internal exams dealt with a relatively small amount of content 'compared to that'.

To put it simply, the exam range for the Civil Law I course in this midterm exam was from the principle of good faith to apparent representation.

The proportion of that in the entire Civil Law was less than half of half of half.

'Of course, even that would be over a hundred pages in a basic textbook.'

This was Korea University Law School.

A place where the best talents in this world gathered to compete.

For those who were experts in studying and exams, that amount was something they could handle.

If so, there were only two ways to secure differentiation.

Either increase the difficulty of the questions themselves by setting many traps, or push even the most minor details into the scoring criteria and make them literally memorize 'everything'.

What the Korea University Law School professors chose was, of course.

'Both.'

You had to memorize the text word for word and internalize all the ways to apply it.

It wasn't the time to brag about exam experience or problem-solving skills.

Absolute time investment was necessary.

"Hoo..."

At four in the morning, my sigh scattered lowly in the empty reading room.

I had been at my desk the entire time since 9 AM yesterday, except for class times.

My eyes were blurry and my head felt like it was about to break.

"It suddenly feels like I've returned to my past life."

The day that my body finally gave up the ghost.

That day, I was also at work until 4 or 5 in the morning.

In terms of lifestyle patterns, it was similar to that time.

Of course, it couldn't be compared to that time.

Repeating meaningless labor to pay off debt and studying a subject you love for your dreams were fundamentally different.

[Case 23. The Timing of the Vesting of Endowment Assets of a Foundation]

"...Let's just solve this and go."

Either way, I was planning to go back to the reading room again at nine today.

Since it was a frequently asked issue that was already ingrained in my head, I should finish it and pack up lightly as a final task.

[I. Issues]

'The timing of the vesting of endowment assets of a foundation' wasn't that difficult of an issue.

If you went deep into it, it would get complicated, but to explain it simply, the key was that two articles, Article 48 and Article 186 of the Civil Act, seemed to contradict each other in certain situations.

First, you accurately write down this situation at the beginning.

[Article 186 of the Civil Act states that it adopts the principle of formal requirements regarding the effect of a change in property rights, but unlike this, Article 48 of the Civil Act states that... (omitted)...]

Next, you introduce the conflict of theories on the problematic situation, state the position of the precedents, and then make a conclusion that appropriately follows the precedents.

"...Or so, you would usually think."

Of course, if it was an answer for the Bar Exam, that alone would be enough.

But what I was doing now was preparing for an internal exam.

Any excellent Korea University Law School student could write that much now.

With an ordinary answer, it was obvious that I wouldn't get first place, or even an average score.

"I need to differentiate myself."

It wasn't that difficult.

[II. Theories]

[The prevailing theory, which prioritizes Article 48 of the Civil Act, takes the position that this provision is equivalent to the 'other legal provisions' of Article 187 of the Civil Act, and that registration is unnecessary...]

Add a plausible argument in advance to build up.

[III. Precedents]

[The precedents take the so-called 'relative ownership vesting theory' and...]

Accurately reveal the position of the precedents and show that I know the precedents well.

[IV. Review and Conclusion]

[I think that ownership is an absolute right, and the creation of the concept of relative vesting in precedents is contrary to the principle of the statutory nature of property rights, which is the major principle of our property law... (omitted)... The prevailing theory based on Article 187 of the Civil Act is the most reasonable. According to this...]

I criticize the position of the precedents based on other core principles of the Civil Act and support the prevailing theory.

Perhaps that would be the conclusion that would get the highest score.

As far as I knew, Professor Park Soo-geun, who taught Civil Law I, was also a supporter of the prevailing view that prioritized Article 48.

"Is this something I should thank the Constitutional Court professor for?"

Although not as extreme as the Constitutional Court professor, most professors who had studied law had their own opinions on important issues.

Among them, there were many who had published related theses, either to maintain their qualifications as professors or because they had a passion for academics.

Naturally, an answer that supported the same view as the professor and explained the arguments that he deemed rational would give a good impression.

Since humans were the ones grading the subjective answers, it was impossible for that to not have an effect.

The fact that I had gained the idea of focusing on the 'test-makers,' that is, the individual 'graders,' while preparing for the Constitutional Court professor's exam was a huge gain.

In national exams, you couldn't know who the grader would be, but for the school's midterm exams, the target was publicly available.

I closed the book with satisfaction, returned to my studio apartment, and fell asleep, looking forward to tomorrow.

And the next day.

"How! How can no one!"

I had dozed off during class due to a lack of sleep, and when I opened my eyes, the Constitutional Court professor was shouting in a hoarse voice.

"In this place, which is supposed to be the best legal education institution in South Korea! Is there no one who can explain Schmitt's theory of sovereign dictatorship!"

...Wait a minute.

That's the thesis I analyzed.