As of May 2025, the number of registered attorneys in South Korea has surpassed 40,000, a fourfold increase since 2006. This rapid growth has significantly impacted the private practice market, with solo practitioners facing mounting pressure—not only from competition but also from the rise of legal AI tools.

However, there’s another side to the story.

Despite the increasing number of lawyers and the availability of user-friendly legal platforms and AI services, many individuals still lack access to reliable legal counsel. Countless people rely on misconceptions about the law, with no attorney in their personal network to consult, often resulting in the unjust loss of rights.

Since opening his own practice, Attorney Kim has seen a sharp rise in consultations with individual clients—men and women of all ages and backgrounds—through phone calls and in-person meetings. Among them, two cases stood out:

In one instance, a gym owner with over 20 years of professional experience as a tenant unwittingly agreed to a rent increase, unaware of his rights. Like many others, he misunderstood Article 11 of the Commercial Building Lease Protection Act, which sets a maximum 5% limit on rent increases (when the security deposit is below a certain threshold). The client believed this 5% was a minimum requirement—akin to a “legal standard” he had to meet.

In truth, the 5% figure is a ceiling, not a floor. Moreover, rent can only be increased if there is an objective change in economic conditions—such as taxes or other expenses—and only with the tenant’s consent. If the tenant refuses, the landlord must file a lawsuit and can only raise the rent to the amount awarded by the court. While increases exceeding 5% are possible after the 10-year protection period expires, such cases are relatively rare in practice.

Ironically, those most unaware of these protections were often small-scale business owners—the very people the law was designed to protect.

Landlords, too, often lacked basic legal knowledge. In another case, a landlord in his 30s had a tenant who had disappeared after failing to pay rent for five months. Assuming he could simply deduct the unpaid rent from the deposit later, the landlord waited passively. In reality, he should have filed for an injunction prohibiting the transfer of possession and initiated a lawsuit for building restitution immediately. Even winning such a case can be slow and difficult to enforce, and additional enforcement costs are substantial.

In both cases, ignorance came at a price: the tenant, realizing he had been exploited, felt outraged; the landlord, stunned by his own inaction, regretted not seeking help earlier.

Attorney Kim emphasizes:

“Always consult a lawyer before signing a contract, sealing a document, or facing a legal issue. Just ask—‘Is this right?’”

Lawyers are closer than you think, and the law is even closer. But if you ignore it, someone who knows it better might twist your arm and take what’s yours. Before that happens—talk to a lawyer.