I Became a Law School Genius
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Chapter 74 Table of contents

Episode 74

"[Author: FaithfulFollowerOfLaw1]"

"It's that guy again...?"

'FaithfulFollowerOfLaw1' was a user who particularly praised the God of Law and lavished compliments on them, calling them a treasure of the bar exam channel.

The user's desperate praise of the God of Law was so over the top that it had created two factions: those who defended the God of Law along with them and those who called them fanatics and insisted that the God of Law should be kicked off the channel out of spite.

'Well, I can't say I dislike it.'

It wasn't because of the praise. I was just glad that I was being helpful to someone.

To be honest, I felt a bit guilty about scooping up all those valuable questions for free, but it was like being acknowledged that I was paying my dues.

On the other hand, it made me a little curious about who this person was, who loved my solutions so much.

'Of course, there's no way we'd ever actually meet.'

This guy had sent me internal exam questions from Yonhee University Law School, which was in the neighborhood, several times.

In other words, there was a very high probability that they were a student at Yonhee University Law School.

In the busy lives of law school students, there weren't many opportunities to interact with students from other law schools.

It was unlikely that we would run into each other by chance, even during the few external activities.

Besides, there was no way I would recognize them even if we did meet.

'Alright, let's take a look at some questions...'

The questions that FaithfulFollowerOfLaw1 sent were generally high-quality and never duds.

I began reviewing the questions that the user had uploaded with a bright smile on my face.

* * *

"Let's take a break."

"Sure. Oh my, I guess it's because of my age, but my back hurts from sitting for so long..."

Kim Seung-pil readily agreed to my suggestion and stood up.

All the members of the Constitutional Law study group were gathered in this study room, studying their own materials.

These people were useful resources that I would use again and again, so I had been consistently spending time studying with them.

It had already been about two hours since we had all sat down.

It was time to take a short break and regain our condition.

Everyone put down their books and relaxed for a moment.

That was when it happened.

"Um, everyone here."

Yoo Ye-seul glanced at the others.

"What are you going to do this summer?"

Summer. She was talking about what we were going to do during the vacation after the semester ended.

Of course, this wasn't a question about our travel plans.

A law school student's vacation wasn't a period to be released from learning (學) and to be free (放).

Rather, it was a time to do preliminary studies for the next semester's curriculum while reviewing the past semester.

On top of that, it was also a valuable time to take on large external activities that you couldn't participate in during the semester due to your class schedule.

'Especially considering Yoo Ye-seul's background...'

Yoo Ye-seul was the eldest daughter of the head of Taejong, a major law firm that was easily within the top five in the country. She was being groomed as his successor.

If she was asking about our vacation schedules, her intention was obvious.

"Are you talking about internships?"

Since some time had passed, I was now using informal speech with Yoo Ye-seul.

I had been following her requests to lower my speech, but Yoo Ye-seul still spoke to me respectfully with a stiff posture, as if she was a soldier who was always on alert.

It was very burdensome.

"Yes. That's right."

Internships. Or practical training.

It was a system where major law firms selected outstanding students from each law school during the vacation and allowed them to experience practical work at the firm.

But it wasn't just a simple experience.

If you skillfully completed the tasks you were given during the training process, you would receive a confirmed job offer, allowing you to start working at the firm immediately after graduation.

This was also called Early Confirm.

"Uh, wasn't it forbidden for first-year students to do internships at our school?"

Han Seol tilted her head.

"That's right. But there's talk that it's going to be lifted starting this year."

As Han Seol said, Korea University Law School had a rule that prohibited first-year students from doing internships at law firms.

The ostensible reason was that since internship selections were heavily influenced by grades and internal rankings, it could result in an overly heated competition among students who were already struggling to adapt to law school from the first semester.

'What a joke.'

Preventing heated competition? If they were going to talk about such nice-sounding things, they should stop ranking every student from first to last place and then plastering that list on the wall like a specimen. That's the only way they would be credible.

In reality, it was a rule that had been created after a public outcry.

Several years ago, when the bar exam and law schools were still coexisting, law schools were treated like the illegitimate children of the legal world.

The situation was slightly better for students from Korea University and the two private universities that were considered to be just below it, but they still had to engage in much fiercer competition than they did now to prove their market value.

That was because the people they had to beat included not only the students above them but also those who had passed the bar exam.

Now, with even lower-tier major law firms included, most of the students from Korea University Law School were getting an Early Confirm somehow, but in those days, only about twenty students were allowed to join the firms.

Naturally, the students studied like they were going to die, and some of them actually did die.

[Korea University Law School, a new student dies due to excessive academic competition!]

[Is the law school system in Korea okay as it is?]

It was a tragedy that resulted in several sensational headlines, and the instruction that the then president of Korea University gave to quell the worsening public opinion was to prohibit first-year students from doing internships.

"It's being lifted?"

"Yes. The times have changed, and the law school system has become much more stable... and this time, Jin & Ahn is moving the internship period to the summer of the first year, cleverly avoiding the issue of grade competition."

"Indeed."

Moving the internship period to the summer of the first year.

You might wonder what that has to do with avoiding the issue of grade competition, but if you want to operate an internship system in the summer, you have to receive applications and select interns during the first semester.

In other words, it was at a time when the first semester report card hadn't even come out yet.

Since there were no grades or rankings, it was naturally impossible to reflect them in the selection process. It also distanced them from the criticism that they were the main culprits behind exacerbating the competition based on internal rankings.

"But then, what are they going to look at to select them?"

Lee Ha-roo, who was sitting cross-legged on the chair, asked.

Maybe it was because she was so small, but she could even sit in that position.

"They originally look at internal rankings and self-introduction letters, right? If grades aren't included, what are they going to use as a standard?"

"Well, I don't really know either."

Yoo Ye-seul shook her head.

"I heard that they're doing some kind of internal selection process... but I don't know the details."

If Yoo Ye-seul, who had a direct connection to the very core of the industry, didn't know, then no one would.

"Anyway, it seems that only Jin & Ahn will be recruiting interns targeting our law school this summer. I thought Taejong might want to join in, but it seems that many partner lawyers are expressing concerns about selecting students without grades..."

She said that other law firms weren't opening internship programs this summer. It was presumed that they had similar reasons to Taejong.

"Well, it's good news, though."

Yoo Tae-woon showed his enthusiasm.

"You said you wanted to work at a major law firm."

"Yeah. Since my grades aren't objectively in the top tier, this is a great opportunity if I can catch Jin & Ahn's eye this time."

He nodded at my words.

His grades were definitely a bit lacking to be selected as an intern at Jin & Ahn.

Now that internal rankings weren't even being considered, this might be his first and last chance.

"Mr. Park Yoo-seung and Han Seol... you said you wanted to work in public service. So, are you not going to apply?"

Yoo Ye-seul asked. I was someone who wanted to become a prosecutor, and Han Seol was planning on becoming a research judge and building her career to become a judge in the court, so it was a natural question to ask.

However.

"No. I'm going to do it."

"Hmm, I'm thinking of applying, too."

We shook our heads at the same time.

"Huh? Why, I."

Yoo Ye-seul, who was expressing her doubts, covered her mouth with her hand.

"It's something that Mr. Park Yoo-seung is doing, so there must be a grand purpose behind it! I'm sorry!"

Then, she banged her head on the desk.

"Raise your head, you fool!"

No matter how I looked at it, her condition was getting worse as time went on.

Was this really the same person who had first appeared and questioned me with a menacing aura?

After barely stopping Yoo Ye-seul, I explained.

"Well, it's not that big of a deal..."

It might seem strange for someone who was aiming to become a prosecutor to apply for a law firm internship.

Maybe it would even look like a selfish act of stealing someone else's valuable opportunity, even though I had no intention of becoming an intern.

'Who cares?'

But a law firm internship was also a path that I had to go through at least once.

And since I had to go to a prosecutor's internship in the summer of my second year, I had to do it during my first year if I was going to do it at all.

It meant that this was a battle that I couldn't back down from.

"Becoming a prosecutor means you have to fight against lawyers in court in the future."

"That's, right...?"

"Which one is more advantageous, fighting without knowing your enemy or fighting while knowing them?"

"Ah...!"

Only then did Yoo Ye-seul seem to realize what I meant and nod her head emphatically.

To become a prosecutor, what did you need to do?

First, you had to take a course called Practical Training at the Prosecutor's Office in the winter of your second year and get a high grade.

Based on that, you had to apply and complete the prosecutor's advanced training course. Finally, you would be appointed as a prosecutor upon passing the final exam and interview.

That's right.

'Upon graduation.'

Under the current system, you would go straight to the Prosecutor's Office after completing law school.

In other words, you would have absolutely no opportunity to experience life as a lawyer.

That way, you wouldn't be able to learn how lawyers handled their practical work.

How they selected and collected evidence, what kind of decision-making process they went through to produce legal arguments within the firm.

In short, their habits, their nature, their rules, and everything else about them.

Going into a courtroom battle without knowing anything about how your opponents worked was not something I was happy about.

Of course, you would gain experience over time and learn from your battles, but there would inevitably be a difference in the density of the experience you gained from going through the lawyer's perspective directly.

"The way to solve that problem is a law firm internship."

Specialists in defense who could make even a guilty person innocent, or if that was impossible, would somehow reduce their sentence and get them a suspended sentence.

The ones who ruled over the top of the legal world, with such people gathered together, were the major law firms, and without a doubt, the organization that dominated the world from the top was Jin & Ahn.

An internship was an excellent opportunity to observe the nature of these people firsthand.

There might be limitations to the fields you could access as an intern, but since it was practical training that was based on the premise of hiring, it was more closely related to the firm's real work than you could imagine.

'Sometimes, they even throw the cases that they have to take on to the interns as assignments.'

I had already learned from the courtroom debate competition how important it was to understand your opponent.

If you didn't have information, it was impossible to predict what they would do, and it was impossible to prepare countermeasures.

"Indeed!"

Yoo Ye-seul got off the chair and bowed.

"While I was only thinking about my immediate career path, Mr. Park Yoo-seung was already looking ahead to what would happen after becoming a prosecutor! Of course, for Mr. Park Yoo-seung, becoming a prosecutor must be a given!"

"It's not a given. You have to work hard to get it. Get up now."

"You're so humble!"

As we were acting out a nonsensical skit, Kim Seung-pil quietly raised his hand.

"Uh, everyone. Excuse me for interrupting your conversation."

He held out his smartphone.

"It seems like it's been posted?"

"What is it?"

"The job posting for the Jin & Ahn internship that we were talking about. It just went up on the law school website."

Indeed, as he said, there was a brand-new job posting that had just been posted on the website.

It seemed that Jin & Ahn weren't very good people either.

"Alright, let's take a look."

The content itself wasn't anything special. It just had information about the internship selection period, the application forms, and, as we had already heard, a mention of a "special selection process."

It seemed like they weren't going to reveal what that process was beforehand.

In reality, what caught my eye was what was written below that.

"A briefing session?"

"It says that they're planning to hold a briefing session, inviting the students, as this practical training process is a somewhat new attempt."

A briefing session itself wasn't anything special.

Especially for Korea University Law School, major law firms would compete to come to the school, hold a briefing session, and promote their own internship process.

"But, the location this time is..."

"Myeongjin Hotel?"

Kim Seung-pil couldn't finish his sentence, and Han Seol shouted with a dumbfounded expression.

"You can tell that they're the top law firm. They must have a lot of money."

I let out a bitter laugh.

Myeongjin Hotel was a super-luxury hotel that was considered to be the best among the five-star hotels in this world.

They were planning to rent the entire lounge, banquet hall, and buffet and hold a briefing session there.

The number of people invited was 150 for Korea University Law School, in other words, the entire first-year class.

Of course, not everyone would actually go, but considering the students who would come from other law schools, it was a ridiculous number.

Truly, it was a scale that was fitting for the people who were at the top of the legal profession in South Korea.

"...I guess I have one more reason to go."

I couldn't resist delicious food.

Chapter written by
Sleeping Club
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