The Growth of Systemic Pro Bono in South Korea by Takgon Lee – Attorney at Law – Dongcheon Foundation Thursday, 4 February 2021 07:27 GMT Share: In the Republic of Korea, there has been a strong tradition of human rights advocacy with lawyers participating in the democracy movement of the 1970s and ’80s. Systematic pro bono work by law firms only emerged in the past decade, but has seen explosive growth in the past few years. The first effort to institutionalise law firm pro bono started with Bae, Kim & Lee, LLC (BKL), which set up an internal pro bono committee in 2001 and established the Dongcheon Foundation in 2009. Under this distinctive model, the firm established a separate non-profit organisation staffed by full-time public interest lawyers, functioning both as a public interest lawyering entity and a preliminary pro bono coordinating body for the firm. It has proven successful in both the accumulation of expertise and in the efficient coordination of pro bono activities, and the model has been adopted by most other major law firms. Together in 2016 they formed the Law Firm Public Interest Network (Network), which now has 12 members. Most of the member law firms focus on the rights of various social minorities, including refugees and migrants, persons with disabilities, children, women, North Korean refugees and homeless people. To this end, they actively engage in partnerships and coalitions with other public interest lawyer groups and civil society organisations.