Women must show strength and professionalism so their male peers view them not simply as female lawyers but as excellent colleagues and strong performers, says a Jipyong senior foreign attorney during an International Women’s Day seminar held on 6 March.
“I am the head of the international group at Jipyong and lead about 30 to 40 male lawyers, and I approach it with strict professionalism,” said Jinhee Kim from Jipyong, at the seminar.
“I don’t say, ‘Go easy on me because I’m a woman,’ or rely on a softer style of leadership. My work is in litigation and when I show the kind of passion that fights like a gamecock, the male lawyers then see me not as a woman but as a lawyer.”
The International Women’s Day seminar, which was co-hosted by the In-House Counsel Forum, the Korea In-House Counsel Association, the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB) International, and the Korea Women Lawyers Association, was held at the headquarters of the KCAB in Seoul and was attended by about 50 people.
During the seminar, senior female Korean lawyers reflected on the past and discussed the structural changes that have taken place during the past decade.
“When I first started working at a law firm in the early 2000s, the environment was somewhat different from today,” said Hyojung Yun, general counsel at Kyndryl Korea.
“There were far more men among my peers and, because they were the majority, there was a culture of following their lead. The environment I am in now is a foreign company where women make up the majority, so I don’t really feel that I experience unfair discrimination simply because I am a woman.”
Dana Kim, co-head of the Korea practice at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, echoed Yun’s sentiment: “I was told that a Korea desk at a foreign law firm was not something a woman should handle. The reasoning was that in Korea, it requires drinking frequently with male clients and building close personal networks, which women were thought unable to do.
“I have been working at a foreign law firm since 2008 and when I first came to Korea in 2013, I met many clients in meetings, but there was not a single female general counsel or team head among them. Now, that has changed a lot.”
Yun Jung Heo, the president of the Korea Women Lawyers Association, delivered a congratulatory speech.
“Being a female lawyer in the legal profession means more than simply building professional expertise,” said Heo. “I hope the organisations gathered here today will continue meaningful exchanges and co-operation, and provide many opportunities for female lawyers to serve as guides and exercise leadership as they plan and develop their careers.”
