Pukyong National University

"How come I applied to my alma mater as a lawyer? For another challenge."

-Interview with PKNU lawyer (legal affairs and audit inspection officer), alumnus Choi Gwang-Seok

Recently, there has been a series of joyous events in the law department. Two people, Park Dong-Young (class of '13) and Lee Jae-Hyeok (class of '17) passed the court civil service examination for 2023 open recruitment, and Pukyong National University also produced the final successful applicants (Park Ji-Hyeon, class of '17) for KDB Industrial Bank's recruitment of new level 5 employees in the second half of 2023.

And there is news from another alumni. Last August, lawyer Choi Gwang-Seok was newly appointed as a legal affair and audit inspection officer at Pukyong National University.

Lawyer Choi Gwang-Seok is a member of the class of 2008 in the department of law, and this is the first time that an alumnus has been hired as a legal affair and audit inspection officer at Pukyong National University.

He graduated from the department of law at Pukyong National University and entered Chonbuk national university law school in 2015 and passed the bar examination in 2021. He later worked at a law firm, and this year he applied to become a legal affair and audit inspection officer at Pukyong National University and was ultimately hired.

A legal affair and audit inspection officer is a position in charge of legal-related work, including on-campus audit work, investigation of misconduct, and counseling and advice to prevent misconduct in advance. This position also provides training and consultation on the latest laws, such as act on the prevention of conflict of interest for faculty and staff.

We met alumnus Choi Gwang-Seok, who returned to Pukyong National University as a lawyer after 9 years and heard about his ongoing challenge.

What motivated Mr. Choi to become a lawyer? He decided to become a lawyer when he took a special lecture on the legal education eligibility test (LEET) prepared by his middle school department. After learning about this exam, which is the qualification test for law school admission, he decided, ‘I have to take on the challenge.’

He said, "At that time, professor Choi Myeong-Gu supported students by creating a law school preparation class, which was of great help. I studied in the exam preparation course and passed the law school at Chonbuk national university. After completing the three-year course, I took the bar exam."

We asked him to tell the secret to pass the bar exam that he would share with his juniors as a senior who passed the bar exam. Then he said, "I passed the bar exam on my fourth attempt. After studying for a long time, the method of first recognizing a problem situation and then studying the theory necessary for that problem worked well for me. Only then could I accurately present the answer the problem required."

He added, "In the case of case-type issues, precedents are considered to be the most important. Usually, we only look at the gist of the decision, but if we study the reasons for the decision, we can understand the judge's thought process and apply it to other issues."

Mr. Choi, who passed the bar exam, built his career as a lawyer by taking on various cases at large law firms Daeryun and Law L (Law & Liberty) for about two years.

He worked for victim defense in 'unprovoked attack', and was involved in almost all areas of litigation, including administrative litigation, criminal cases, school violence, inheritance, real estate, and divorce.

What motivated him to apply to a university lawyer while working at a law firm?

He said, "In the process of continuing to grow as a lawyer, I took on cases in a variety of fields and wanted to challenge myself in the administrative field of public institutions, so decided to apply," and he continued, "I felt like I wouldn't be able to experience anything else if I stay in one place for a long time and kept doing what I was doing, so I decided to take on a new challenge before my years there got longer. When I found an announcement from Pukyong National University, I applied, thinking that I could be of some help to my alma mater as an alumnus."

When asked how he felt about working at his alma mater as a lawyer, he responded, "When I came back to school after a long time, I was surprised at how much it had changed. The department was moved to a different building*, and the playground was also changed. A lot of new buildings have been built and the school seems to have improved," he added, "As I started working at the school, I was able to understand the administrative system, which I was unfamiliar with when I was a student, and I started working while thinking about how I could help my alma mater and my juniors.

* The department of law moved from Narae building (A23) to the college of humanities and social sciences · business administration building (C25).

Lastly, we asked him to leave a message as an alumnus that he would like to say to his juniors.

Mr. Choi said, "I would like to encourage you to set your goals as high as possible. That way, when you succeed, you can achieve greater achievements, and even if you fail, I think there is something to be gained from it," and said with a smile, "I think the most important thing is to show the juniors at school how their seniors are active. In order to let people know that there is a path like this, I also want to show them that I keep taking on challenges." <Pukyong Today>