Episode 75

The briefing session was scheduled for Friday evening.

Fortunately, it was after all classes had ended, so no one had to miss it due to academic obligations.

Since we were all heading there from school anyway, we decided to go together as a group of people who knew each other.

The members were me, Han Seol, Yoo Tae-woon, and Yoo Ye-seul.

Lee Ha-roo said she wasn't interested in working at a law firm and bowed out, while Kim Seung-pil had some personal matters to attend to and went his own way.

"I'll drive you all there."

Thanks to that, we were able to comfortably go in a company car driven by a Taejong employee.

"Don't you have something like that? You're the young master of Yu Seong Group."

"I've been living as the black sheep of the family for so long."

"Ah, a-ah..."

I couldn't help but smile wryly at Han Seol's question.

It was true that I had recently started to be acknowledged by Park Geon again after going through various things, but it was, in the truest sense of the word, just the beginning.

My position within the family still wasn't at a point where I could freely call upon the staff to do my bidding.

'Even Mr. Choi only comes when Park Geon sends him...'

Han Seol seemed to feel somewhat sorry, but the original Park Yoo-seung's life wasn't something I had personally experienced, so it wasn't really an issue that bothered me.

Rather.

"But how were you able to call a driver so easily? It's for a briefing session for a rival company, no less."

Considering that Yoo Ye-seul was the heir to Taejong, it was a strange thing, so I voiced my question.

"It's the opposite. Since it's for going to a rival company, that's why I can use them even more."

Yoo Ye-seul shook her head.

"What my father expected of me when he sent me to law school wasn't just to get a certificate. He also wanted me to get to know my outstanding peers and seniors."

Securing connections. It wasn't a story that was difficult to comprehend.

If they could secure promising talent and bring them into Taejong's fold, there was nothing better for the law firm.

"But what's more important are the talented people that we can't, or aren't able to, bring in."

"The ones you can't bring in?"

"Yes. They're the ones who will take us to places that we can't reach just with Taejong's power... he called them 'real' connections."

'Indeed.'

I was inwardly impressed.

It wasn't always the best idea to bring all the outstanding talent into your own company.

Rather, if you had a solid connection, it wasn't bad to let them play in bigger waters.

Those who spread to the judiciary, the prosecution, other major law firms, or the legal teams of core companies would become reliable allies when the time came.

"And I'm certain that you all are those kinds of people."

Even if we were to actually go to Jin & Ahn, this was her way of saying that being nice to us in advance would benefit her in the future.

'That's a perspective I hadn't considered.'

Yoo Ye-seul had shown me a lot of idiotic behavior in front of me, but she was a capable resource who had been raised to succeed the position of a law firm's CEO.

"We've arrived."

"Thank you. It'll take about three hours, so please wait nearby."

The employee who had dropped us off in front of Myeongjin Hotel followed the order without any further comment.

Yoo Ye-seul explained that they would also get a generous overtime pay, and in terms of workload, this was much better for the employees than staying in the office and doing backlog work. They could slack off at a cafe under the guise of waiting.

Myeongjin Hotel was as dazzling as I had heard it was, even from just the outside.

In fact, if I was in Park Yoo-seung's body, I could have gone to a place like this whenever I wanted if I had the mind to, but I didn't have the time to waste, so this was the first time I had actually seen a five-star hotel.

"I wonder just how much Jin & Ahn spent today..."

I couldn't help but nod at Han Seol's mutter.

"Are you here for the Jin & Ahn briefing session for law school practical training?"

As we were loitering near the banquet hall, a man in a suit, who seemed to be an employee of Jin & Ahn, approached us.

"Yes, that's right."

"Please come this way."

As we entered, following his guidance, a large banner that read, "Jin & Ahn Law School Practical Training Briefing Session" was prominently displayed.

The next thing that caught my eye was the seating arrangement.

'Did they divide the seats by law school?'

Looking closely, there were signs with the names of different universities, such as "Korea University Law School" and "Yonhee University Law School," on each table.

Since they hadn't received individual applications beforehand, it seemed that they had arranged the seats by school in advance.

"Shall we go over there?"

I pointed at a table that was relatively in the front.

The seats with the Korea University Law School sign were mostly gathered at the very front of the hall, and since it was closer to the presenter, it would be easier to listen to the presentation or ask questions.

"Wow, this chair is really comfy."

"The tea and snacks are all set up, too. This is a pretty expensive brand."

Han Seol was impressed with the comfort of the seats, while Yoo Ye-seul's eyes were on the refreshments that were placed on the table.

There were even notebooks and pens with the Jin & Ahn logo on them, prepared for each person, as if they wanted us to take notes of the important parts.

"I've only heard of Jin & Ahn by name, but I didn't know they spent money like this..."

Yoo Tae-woon, too, was in awe of everything he was seeing, and couldn't help but feel even more passionate about getting a confirmation, as he had the goal of resolving his family's financial difficulties.

However, I had a slight concern.

'This arrangement, this setup...'

In my past life, I was a gosisaeng who was studying for the bar exam.

I knew quite a few seniors who had jumped into the gosi world before me, and some of them had even achieved the valuable result of passing the bar exam and becoming legal professionals.

That meant that I had heard various stories about the legal world, directly and indirectly.

And when I combined the knowledge that I had gained from that with the scenes that were now unfolding before my eyes...

"What is this all about?"

At that moment, a sharp voice echoed through the banquet hall.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Don't play dumb."

Turning my head to the source of the commotion, I saw a woman, who looked to be in her mid-twenties, arguing with the Jin & Ahn employee who had guided us in.

Judging by the Yonhee University Law School hoodie she was wearing, she was probably a student from that school.

"This seating arrangement, it's clearly discriminatory!"

The Yonhee student glared at the employee.

"Discriminatory? We're just trying to..."

"Don't try to play it off."

The student cut off the employee.

"Dividing the seats by law school? Okay, I can see that. The official notice itself was sent out to each law school. The fact that the tables designated for Korea University Law School are all placed in the front? Fine. I can even say that's a 'coincidence.'"

But, she said, her teeth grinding,

"Isn't this difference in treatment a bit too blatant?"

What the Yonhee student was pointing at with one hand was the table where we, the students from Korea University Law School, were sitting.

The seats were too comfortable, the refreshments were luxurious, and it was obvious that the place was different.

With her other hand, she pointed at the tables that were designated for students from other law schools, such as "Yonhee University Law School," "Boseong University Law School," and "Myungryun University Law School."

Although they were all considered prestigious universities in the world, the tables that were assigned to them were obviously inferior to ours.

The chairs were just standard mass-produced ones, and there were no refreshments on the tables. There was just a single pen.

'They even brought our chairs separately.'

Looking closely, it seemed that most of the other seats were the same, so it was clear that they had gone out of their way to bring in better chairs for the tables assigned to Korea University Law School.

"You only bothered to set up the Korea University seats. The rest of us are just treated like second-class citizens. Are we just extras who were called here to make the Korea University students shine? Is this the kind of treatment you were planning on providing when you sent out the notices for the briefing session?"

She was seething with anger.

"Is this the standard of Jin & Ahn, the best law firm?"

'It's too much, indeed.'

It wasn't a very pretty sight.

It was no secret that the legal world valued academic credentials.

In this world, the graduates of Korea University Law School had formed their own clique since their law school days, acting like royalty.

Although it had been somewhat alleviated since the law school era had begun, the tendency to value academic credentials hadn't completely disappeared.

If you just opened the homepage of any major law firm and looked at the personnel, you would see that the associates, meaning the junior lawyers, were overwhelmingly from Korea University Law School.

The next largest group was from Boseong University or Yonhee University Law School, which were considered to be just below Korea University.

It was to the point where you would have to scroll down quite a bit to find the names of other schools.

The biggest reason for this was that the clients who commissioned the work from these law firms valued academic credentials.

Since they had no way of assessing the skills of the lawyers who would be handling their cases, they would judge them based on their credentials, which were easily accessible.

If the team handling their case was composed of junior lawyers from Korea University Law School and partners who had graduated from Korea University's law department and passed the bar exam, they would nod, thinking that it was the best team.

But if it was composed of lawyers from other schools, they would start to nitpick.

• You have to convince the client with your credentials first, then you have to intimidate them. Otherwise, a task that could be solved in one sentence will take ten or a hundred sentences to complete.

I remembered what a senior had said at a drinking party in my past life.

Anyway, that was the reality, so the law firms couldn't be completely blamed.

If that was what the clients wanted, what could they do?

As a service provider, they had no choice but to provide the goods and services that matched the demands.

It was understandable that they would reflect academic credentials in the hiring process.

"But this is a bit much."

I blurted out, and Han Seol and Yoo Tae-woon nodded.

"It's unpleasant to see such a blatant display of discrimination. Yeah."

"The other students are all capable and hardworking people, but... this kind of thing just makes it impossible for them to be motivated."

Although we were the ones who were benefiting from this kind of treatment, it didn't feel good to us either. It wasn't because of any great sense of justice.

"It feels like I'm being evaluated based on my credentials, not as an individual."

That was the point that I particularly disliked.

They were treating us well because we were from Korea University Law School? In other words, it meant that what was important was our background, not who we were.

To be honest, I was confident that I could beat all the other students in this place with my skills.

Unless they were the third-year students who were seasoned test-takers, it would be hard to find anyone among the first-year students who were at my level, even if you searched the entire country.

But the reason why I was being treated better than them wasn't because of my skills.

It was simply because I was from Korea University Law School.

Even if the original Park Yoo-seung was sitting here, he would have received the same treatment, while if I was from another school, I would be sitting on one of those hard chairs, or I wouldn't have even been invited here at all.

That was an act that threw my pride as a law student into the trash.

In fact, it wasn't just me, but everyone here who was probably feeling the same way.

That was why I was inwardly supporting the student who was protesting.

"Hey, aren't you even ashamed of yourselves?"

Suddenly, she walked towards us, turning her anger towards us.

"......Are you talking to us?"

"Yes, you."

When I asked, she glared at me, as if she had been waiting for it.

"Korea University Law School students, relying on your academic background, receiving all kinds of special treatment without having proven your skills fairly. I'm talking about you."

"No, we..."

Han Seol tried to retort but then closed her mouth.

It was a wise decision. Right now, this student was just venting her anger that had nowhere else to go.

In reality, just because one student complained, it wasn't as if the person in charge of Jin & Ahn would come out and say, "Oh my, we were wrong," and apologize or change the seating arrangement.

That was why the choices that were ultimately given to her were limited to two.

To conform to the system or to find someone else to hate.

'And that just had to be us.'

So there was no point in us saying that we also didn't like the current situation, or that we sympathized with her anger.

That would just sound like hypocrisy from the privileged.

In fact, if you thought about it, Yonhee Law School was one of the best in the country, and most of the other schools in the top 25 weren't even invited today, so it was a pathetic situation.

"Hey, are you even listening?"

Her voice became harsher, as if she thought we were ignoring her.

'Hah, really.'

I sympathized with her feelings and her message.

I also didn't like this kind of thing.

But to suddenly treat a stranger like some kind of villain, without even trying to talk to them first, was not something that I could accept.

'No. Rather, this is a good thing.'

I glanced around. It seemed that this argument had attracted a lot of attention.

My fellow Korea University Law School students were watching, as were the students from other law schools who were observing from afar.

'They say that I haven't proven my skills fairly.'