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Constitutional research officers, regarded as core personnel at the Constitutional Court, have moved to major law firms one after another. These are the first departures since the introduction of the constitutional complaint against court rulings system in March this year. Analysts say that as the system has expanded the constitutional litigation market, major law firms have begun competing in earnest to recruit specialized personnel from the Constitutional Court. However, concerns are also being raised that if experienced constitutional research officers continue to leave, the Court's already heavy workload—burdened by a rising number of cases—could worsen.
According to the legal community on the 5th, law firm Yulchon recently recruited Ryu Ji-hyun, a former senior constitutional research officer at the Constitutional Court (35th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute), as a partner attorney. Ryu spent about 17 years handling constitutional adjudication practice and system research, serving as head of the system research team at the Constitutional Research Institute and as a senior constitutional research officer. Before joining the Court, she worked as a judge at the Suwon District Court and the Seoul Central District Court. Kim Hyun-young, a former senior constitutional research officer who served at the Court for about 19 years, will also move to Shin & Kim as a partner attorney.
The legal community views these recruitments as cases in which the behind-the-scenes competition to secure talent from the Constitutional Court has surfaced. Behind the major law firms' accelerating efforts to secure Court personnel lies the new legal market opened by the introduction of the constitutional complaint against court rulings system. In about two and a half months since the system took effect on March 12 this year through the 1st of this month, the number of such complaints filed with the Court reached 800. Because the Court requires retaining an attorney in constitutional complaint cases, including complaints against court rulings, demand for legal representatives is bound to increase.
The high threshold for constitutional complaints against court rulings is also raising the importance of constitutional specialists. Since the system took effect, only six cases have passed the preliminary review and been referred to the full bench. The referral rate is just 0.88%. Because the structure requires constructing the unconstitutionality argument with precision—beyond simply contesting a ruling—to reach the full review stage, securing personnel well-versed in constitutional logic is emerging as a key variable in the competition to take on cases.
On the other hand, there are concerns that continued departures of constitutional research officers could disrupt the Court's organizational operations. The quota for constitutional research officers was recently expanded from 73 to 93, but analysts say it is not easy to fill the gap left by veteran personnel in a short time. One legal community official said, "If experienced constitutional research officers leave and the gap is filled by inexperienced new personnel, the Court itself may find it difficult to handle the workload."
