During the period of Japanese colonial rule, as the movements for independence grew, the Japanese Colonial Government of Korea called in independence activists to court and punished them through unfair trials in an attempt to crush this spirit.
At that time, Kim Byung-ro was active as a human rights lawyer and he actively defended independence activists to prevent them from being unfairly punished.
Kim Byung-ro studied law at Nihon University and Meiji University in Japan, where he gained expertise in the field. At that time, despite Koreans being ineligible to take the Japanese bar exam, he possessed such exceptional abilities that his professors even encouraged him to take the exam.
After graduation, he returned to his home country and taught law at various universities, and founded an organization with like-minded lawyers.
On this basis, he continued to provide pro bono legal services, standing on the side of independence activists in trials related to the independence movement.
Kim Byung-ro’s legal skills and oratory in the courtroom were so exceptional that even the Japanese judges at the time evaluated him as having ‘logic and passion beyond comparison.’ He was truly unparalleled in his field.
After the liberation, he served as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea, working to ensure the independence of the judiciary, compiling legal texts in Korean, and fostering the training of upright judges.
“I engaged in active advocacy and defense because I wanted to protect my fellow countrymen who were suffering from Japanese oppression.”
“To die of starvation for the sake of justice is thousands of times more honorable than committing injustice.”
Kim Byung-ro, who constantly pondered the cultivation of honest legal professionals and the reform of the legal profession in Korea. Now, become 21st-century Kim Byung-ro and complete Korea that he dreamed of!