The annual debate over the number of successful candidates has reached a point where some express weariness. However, too many vested interests are intertwined to simply dismiss it as a ‘turf war.’ In particular, the advent of the AI era is raising fundamental questions about the very future of the legal profession.

Pass Rate Stuck at 50%, The Unending Spark of Controversy

The pass rate for the 15th Lawyer Bar Exam in 2026 was 50.95%, and despite recording the highest number of applicants ever, the number of successful candidates actually decreased by 30 compared to the previous year. This shows a situation where the pass rate, which was 87.1% in the first year of the law school system’s introduction, has been halved to the low 50% range. Such a low pass rate makes it difficult to avoid criticism that law school education is distorted to focus on exam preparation.

• Korean Bar Association: Points to the saturation of the lawyer market and argues that the number of successful candidates should be reduced to below 1,500. It also predicts that with the introduction of AI in the legal field, up to 80% of lawyer duties could be automated by 2030, taking the position that the output of new lawyers should be restricted.
• Korean Association of Law Schools: Counter-argues that the bar exam should be converted into a qualification exam and the pass rate should be increased. It points out that restricting the output of new legal professionals is going against the changes of the times, even to meet the increasing legal demand in new industries such as AI and bio.
• ‘Five-strike rule’ issue: The so-called ‘five-strike rule’ (오탈자), where individuals lose their eligibility to apply after using all five chances within five years of graduation without passing, has accumulated over 2,000 people. These individuals, despite receiving specialized education, cannot enter the legal profession, leading to social loss.

These stark differences in opinion also stem from confusion over whether the bar exam is essentially a qualification exam or a public competitive exam like a civil service exam. The Ministry of Justice explains that it decided on the number of successful candidates considering the original purpose of introducing law schools, but this controversy seems to have become an annual custom.

The AI Era, Fundamental Questions for the Legal Professional Training System

This is not simply a matter of increasing or decreasing the number of successful candidates. The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally changing the landscape of the legal profession. At the 2026 American Economic Association (AEA) annual meeting, a shocking diagnosis was made: “One should not choose the legal profession as a career in the future.” It is already an open secret that law firms are entrusting legal research to AI instead of hiring new lawyers.

• AI perfectly replaces basic tasks that new lawyers used to handle, such as case analysis and drafting documents.
• As work can be handled by experienced senior lawyers and AI alone, law firms are losing the incentive to train new recruits.
• This is tantamount to ‘pulling up the ladder’ for those who dream of entering the legal profession. The bottleneck where opportunities to gain practical experience are not even available is intensifying.
• Even if the demand for legal services increases, the prevailing view is that AI will absorb a significant portion of that demand, not human lawyers.

In this situation, questions are being raised about whether the existing legal professional training system is suitable for the future era. It is a natural progression that voices are growing for a new approach that goes beyond simply ranking by exam scores, to determine what competencies are needed for legal professionals in the AI era.

Initiation of a Preliminary Bar Exam, a Signal for Law School System Reform?

As conflicts surrounding the law school system and the bar exam continue, concrete movements for institutional improvement are finally being observed. Recently, a bill to introduce a ‘Preliminary Bar Exam’ was proposed. This bill states that individuals who have completed a certain number of credits in law subjects, even without graduating from law school, will be granted eligibility to take the bar exam.

• The preliminary exam will be held once a year, consisting of multiple-choice questions in subjects such as constitutional law, civil law, and criminal law, and the number of successful candidates cannot exceed one-fifth (400 people) of the law school admission quota.
• An interesting point is the clause that law school students, those on leave of absence, or graduates cannot take the preliminary exam. This appears to be an attempt to create a crack in the law school-centric legal professional training system.
• The Bar Exam Management Committee also acknowledged the problems of the law school system and adopted recommendations for developing medium- to long-term improvement directions. These include the introduction of an absolute grading system for elective subject exams, and the development of credit completion systems and standardized academic achievement evaluation indicators.

These recommendations and the preliminary exam introduction bill demonstrate a commitment to improving the legal professional selection and training system, comprehensively considering the changed legal market environment, population decline, and AI introduction, among other factors, 15 years after the introduction of the law school system. It remains to be seen whether these attempts can inject new vitality into the rigid legal profession.

The announcement of the 2026 Lawyer Bar Exam successful candidates has become an opportunity to illuminate both the present and future of the legal profession, beyond mere numbers. From the pass rate controversy and the ‘five-strike rule’ issue to the advent of the AI era, the legal professional training system is now at a critical turning point. It is urgent to find wise solutions through social consensus on which direction to take next.

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