42기 사법연수생들의 직업선호 변화와 그 원인 : 판⋅검사 선호의 하락과 중대형로펌 선호 현상을 중심으로 ; Why JRTI Students Are Getting Attracted to Big Law Firms Instead of Being a Judge or a Public Prosecutor? : Changing Patterns of Job Preferences of JRTI Students

In this article, I tried to find out how Judicial Research and Training Institute (JRTI hereinafter) students changed their job preferences in the course of their education and why they changed them. In order to explore this issue, I carried out my own surveys to JRTI students who entered JRTI on March 2010. I gave them my questionnaire twice in view of obtaining longitudinal data, first time one week after their entrance ceremony (March 9, 2011), second time right before their internship program started (May 23, 2012). After reviewing my survey results, I found out JRTI students changed their job preferences quite dramatically during their years in JRTI. JRTI students mostly preferred judges and public prosecutors as their first career when they entered JRTI. But during the course of their years in JRTI, their preferences for judges and public prosecutors faded away. While in contrast, their preferences for big law firms increased a lot. There are six reasons for this change. First, South Korea changed its system of appointing new judges in June 2011. Due to this reform, it became unavailable for newly graduates of JRTI to become judges right after their graduation. Newly graduates of JRTI should have more than 3 years field experience in order to apply for judges. Instead, the Supreme Court of Korea initiated a new Law Clerk system for newly graduates. But the status of a law clerk is much insecure than a judge, because one can work as a law clerk only for two years. After that one has to find an another job in order to fulfill 3 years field experience requirement if one wants to apply for judgeship. This made it harder for JRTI students to become a judge. It resulted in the decline of JRTI students preference for judgeship. Second, JRTI students commitment to social justice fell during their years in JRTI. Therefore, the shortcoming of working in a big law firm, which is far from empowering minorities, has become of less importance to JRTI students. Third, skepticism began to grow among JRTI students that it ...