High-profile lawyer goes AWOL, after losing school bullying case due to no-shows

High-profile lawyer Kwon Gyeong-ae, whose repeated failures to show up to hearings led to her losing a yearslong legal battle over a teen’s death from school bullying, appears to have gone into hiding after promising financial compensation for her blunders to the bereaved family.

According to lawyer Yang Seung-cheol, currently representing the bereaved family, it has not been possible to contact 58-year-old Kwon since their phone conversation on Monday. He also said that Kwon gave a written pledge to pay 90 million won ($68,243) to the victim’s family over three years before she seemingly vanished, adding that the amount was decided unilaterally by Kwon. Such a written pledge is not legally binding.

Kwon also resigned from her post at her law firm, and switched her Facebook account status to "private."

Kwon Gyeong-ae (Yonhap)

The lawyer had been representing the bereaved family of a teenage girl who had taken her own life in 2015 as result of school bullying, in a six-year-long civil lawsuit seeking compensation for damages. But she failed to show up at the hearings three times, resulting in the loss of the case, which she had hidden from the bereaved family for over five months.

In a public statement, the victim’s father, Lee Gi-cheol, said that Kwon had kept the family in the dark concerning the case. When confronted by Lee Gi-cheol, Kwon told him that she had failed to make it there the first time because she had collapsed on the way to the court, the second time because she had written the wrong date down in her notepad, and the third time because the judge supposedly told her the wrong date. She also did not accept Lee’s demand for her to make a public apology, saying that doing so would “bury” her reputation.

By losing the case, Lee faces the prospect of a considerable financial burden, on top of over 10 million won in lawyer fees that he has already paid to Kwon.

South Korean law stipulates that for civic cases, the winner can charge the loser the legal fees. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, one of the defendants in the case, has already filed charges claiming 13 million won in legal fees from Lee, although the SMOE said Thursday it is mulling possibly dropping the case.

While the case has sparked fury nationwide toward Kwon and sympathy toward the Lee family, there is no legal precedent as of now that allows a retrial due to a personal blunder of the attorney. A possible action for the Lee family would be to file charges against Kwon herself to compensate for the damages she inflicted, which the Lee family is currently considering.

In light of the controversy, the Korean Bar Association is planning to submit Kwon to the disciplinary committee.

Kwon was previously known as a high-profile lawyer here, earning her reputation through her outspoken criticism of ex-Justice Minister Cho Kuk, former President Moon Jae-in and main opposition Democratic Party Leader Lee Jae-myung.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)