Invest1 publisherNot yet confirmed elsewhere3 min readPublished
Korea's Big Six added 20-odd ex-police in five months. That is October, priced.
With the Prosecution Service abolished in October and police becoming the primary investigator for all crimes, law firm hiring shows where corporate criminal exposure now sits.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- South Korea's large law firms are moving quickly to hire former police officers as the investigative center of gravity shifts from prosecutors to police, ahead of the abolition of the Prosecution Service in October.
- The country's six largest law firms by revenue last year are Lee & Ko, Kim & Chang, Shin & Kim, Yulchon, Bae, Kim & Lee, and Yoon & Yang.
- In February this year the six largest firms employed around 180 former police officers; the number surpassed 200 as of last month.
- Bae, Kim & Lee increased its former police staff from 18 in February to 25 as of last month.
- Over the same period Yulchon and Lee & Ko each added four former officers, bringing their totals to 29 and 28 respectively.
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Why it matters
South Korea's six largest law firms by revenue took their combined bench of former police officers from roughly 180 in February to more than 200 by last month, according to the legal community as reported on the 15th [3][2][19]. The Prosecution Service is abolished in October and police become the primary investigative agency for all crimes, so this is not a talent story; it is the defence bar repricing where criminal exposure will actually be decided [1][8].
The growth is concentrated. Kim & Chang held at about 60 former officers and Shin & Kim at about 30 [7]. Everything else came from four firms: Bae, Kim & Lee went from 18 to 25, Yoon & Yang from 25 to 32, and Yulchon and Lee & Ko each added four to reach 29 and 28 [4][6][5]. That is roughly 22 net additions in five months, an aggregate increase of about 11 percent, with Bae, Kim & Lee up about 39 percent off a small base [20][23][22]. Total disclosed headcount across the six comes to about 204 [21].
The mechanics behind the buying matter more than the headcount. Under the revised Criminal Procedure Act enacted alongside the abolition, police gain sweeping authority to close cases themselves when they find no wrongdoing [11][8]. Warrants for arrest, detention and search and seizure will be led by police and routed through prosecutors, and prosecutors lose the ability to request warrants directly [9]. Prosecutors' supplementary investigation power disappears, which removes their function of checking the police [10]. For a company under investigation, that compresses the process: the body that opens the file, seeks the coercive measures and can dispose of the matter is now the same body, and the second look that used to sit downstream is gone [8][9][10].
The seniority of the hires tells you what the firms think they are buying. Yoon & Yang brought in Shin Jae-moon and Kim Do-kyung as partners this month, both with intellectual and metropolitan crime investigation backgrounds at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency [12][13]. Bae, Kim & Lee hired Jang Woo-sung, a special prosecutor's deputy on the insurrection special counsel team that investigated former President Yoon Suk-yeol and a former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Economic Crime Investigation Unit [14]. Yulchon took Han Won-hoeng, formerly head of the metropolitan crime investigation unit at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency [15]. These are economic and white-collar investigation leaders, not traffic or patrol veterans.
There is a reputational cost attached. Last year both Kim Kyung, a party to the 100-million-won nomination bribery case, and the wife of independent lawmaker Kim Byung-ki retained former police attorneys drawn from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Intellectual Crime Investigation Unit [16]. In February, a Gangnam Police Station criminal affairs section chief who had handled the case involving the entertainer Park Na-rae drew public anger after retiring and joining a large firm to represent her [17].
Watch the police response. The agency is simultaneously trying to stop the outflow of skilled investigators and to prevent what is being called courtesy for former police between serving officers and firms [18]. Any cooling-off rule or contact restriction that emerges would devalue the benches these firms have just built, which is the risk buried in the hiring numbers.
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- [1]
South Korea's large law firms are moving quickly to hire former police officers as the investigative center of gravity shifts from prosecutors to police, ahead of the abolition of the Prosecution Service in October.
- [2]
The country's six largest law firms by revenue last year are Lee & Ko, Kim & Chang, Shin & Kim, Yulchon, Bae, Kim & Lee, and Yoon & Yang.
- [3]
In February this year the six largest firms employed around 180 former police officers; the number surpassed 200 as of last month.
- [4]
Bae, Kim & Lee increased its former police staff from 18 in February to 25 as of last month.
- [5]
Over the same period Yulchon and Lee & Ko each added four former officers, bringing their totals to 29 and 28 respectively.
- [6]
Yoon & Yang expanded its former police staff from 25 to 32 over the same period.
- [7]
Kim & Chang and Shin & Kim have maintained roughly 60 and 30 former police officers respectively.
- [8]
Going forward the police will serve as the primary investigative agency for all crimes and will gain sweeping authority to close cases on their own when they determine there is no wrongdoing.
- [9]
Warrants for coercive investigation such as arrest or detention of suspects and search and seizure will all be led by the police and requested through prosecutors; under the revised Criminal Procedure Act prosecutors will no longer be able to request warrants directly.
- [10]
Prosecutors' supplementary investigation power will disappear, eliminating their function of checking the police.
- [11]
The trend stems from a sweeping overhaul of the criminal justice system, including the revised Criminal Procedure Act enacted alongside the abolition of the Prosecution Service.
- [12]
This month Yoon & Yang recruited former police officers Shin Jae-moon and Kim Do-kyung as partner attorneys; Shin worked for more than 10 years starting in 2015 in key police investigation fields including the Korean National Police Agency's Special Investigation Division and as a team leader at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Intellectual Crime Investigation Unit.
- [13]
Kim Do-kyung joined the Korean National Police Agency in 2016 as a specially recruited attorney and served as an investigation team leader at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Metropolitan Investigation Unit, an investigation examiner in the agency's Investigation Bureau, and an investigation team leader at Seoul Gangseo Police Station.
- [14]
Special prosecutor's deputy Jang Woo-sung, who handled the investigation of former President Yoon Suk-yeol on the insurrection special counsel team, joined Bae, Kim & Lee last month; he entered the police in 2005 as a specially recruited senior superintendent and held posts including head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Economic Crime Investigation Unit.
- [15]
Yulchon recruited attorney Han Won-hoeng last month; he served as head of the metropolitan crime investigation unit at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, and after joining the police in 2005 was an investigation section chief at Seoul's Guro Police Station and a criminal affairs section chief at Yeongdeungpo Police Station.
- [16]
Last year both Kim Kyung, a former Seoul city councilor and a party to the 100-million-won nomination bribery case, and the wife of independent lawmaker Kim Byung-ki, who faces charges of receiving nomination funds, retained former police attorneys with backgrounds at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Intellectual Crime Investigation Unit.
- [17]
In February a criminal affairs section chief at Gangnam Police Station who had handled the case involving entertainer Park Na-rae drew public anger after retiring and moving to a large law firm to represent Park.
- [18]
The police now face the task of curbing the outflow of skilled investigators and preventing what is being called courtesy for former police between officers and law firms.
- [19]
The figures were reported according to the legal community on the 15th, in a report published 15 August 2026.
- [20]
Bae, Kim & Lee (+7), Yoon & Yang (+7), Yulchon (+4) and Lee & Ko (+4) account for about 22 net additions between February and last month, while Kim & Chang and Shin & Kim were flat.
- [21]
Summed disclosed headcount across the six firms as of last month is about 204.
- [22]
Bae, Kim & Lee's former police headcount rose about 39 percent between February and last month.
- [23]
The aggregate bench across the six firms grew about 11 percent from around 180 to more than 200.
Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- en.sedaily.comBig Law Firms Race to Hire Ex-Police as Korea Scraps Prosecution Service
1 article · August 15, 2026
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