A layperson has won a courtroom battle against a licensed attorney by relying on artificial intelligence to draft legal documents, in a case that highlights how AI is eroding the entry barriers of professions such as accountants and lawyers by absorbing routine tasks like drafting.
According to legal industry sources on Friday, a man surnamed Park terminated his contract with a lawyer surnamed A after a dispute over the drafting of a legal opinion, only to find himself entangled in unexpected litigation.
The law firm that A belonged to filed a civil suit demanding 5.1 million won in unpaid legal fees, while A personally filed a criminal complaint, claiming Park's manner of protest amounted to intimidation. Park approached two other lawyers, but both declined to take the case, saying it was burdensome to go up against a fellow attorney.
Forced to defend himself, Park turned to AI. He delegated the analysis of the criminal complaint, legal review, and document drafting to AI, and even received tailored real-time response strategies whenever he input the opposing party's filings.
The AI flagged errors in the legal opinion drafted by lawyer A, including incorrect dates in transcripts and missing dates and signatures on contracts. The outcome was a clean sweep for Park. Police closed the criminal case without referring it to prosecutors on grounds of insufficient evidence, and Park ultimately prevailed in the civil suit as well.
Observers say the case is more than a one-off incident. According to the Bank of Korea's AI exposure index by occupation, the work of judges, prosecutors, and lawyers has a 79% probability of being replaced at the current level of AI technology. The figure rises to 81% for accountants and 99% for doctors and oriental medicine practitioners.
Given that generative AI excels at text-based knowledge work, professions involving heavily standardized tasks—such as case law searches, drafting documents, and contract analysis—are the first to feel the impact.
The shift is already showing up in the job market. Lawyer job postings fell more than 18% over three years, from 3,895 in 2021 to 3,167 last year. The number of people who passed the certified public accountant exam but failed to find a practical training placement required for full qualification surged roughly 12-fold, from 14 in 2022 to 178 last year.
Hiring of entry-level accountants at Korea's four major accounting firms—Samil PwC, Samjong KPMG, Deloitte Anjin, and EY Hanyoung—has also dropped more than 30%, from about 1,100 in 2019 to roughly 700 this year. AI is rapidly taking over the repetitive tasks once handled by junior associates with one to three years of experience, such as organizing precedents and analyzing journal entries.
Macroeconomic indicators tell the same story. According to a Bank of Korea report titled "The Spread of Artificial Intelligence and the Contraction of Youth Employment," 211,000 jobs for young people have disappeared in the three years since ChatGPT was released in 2022.
Employment in professional, scientific, and technical services—which includes lawyers, accountants, and tax accountants—stood at 1.389 million last month, down 98,000 from a year earlier and marking a second consecutive monthly decline. A two-month run of declining employment in what had been considered a stable sector is unusual.
The legal industry itself is embracing AI aggressively. The country's top 10 law firms, including Kim & Chang, Lee & Ko, Bae, Kim & Lee, and Shin & Kim, have deployed AI that automatically analyzes precedents and legal documents to produce draft filings. Smaller firms without proprietary systems handle their work through external legal AI platforms such as LBox. In effect, the research and document organization once handled by junior lawyers is shifting to AI.
