Column | A Lawyer Who Sees with Both Eyes, Not One
Novelist Kwon Ki-tae recently featured a passage from Attorney Shin Min-young's essay collection in his column.
The case discussed in the column unfolded as follows: a defendant caused a hit-and-run accident, and when the victim chased after him to protest, the defendant struck the victim with his car a second time. Attorney Shin represented the defendant in this case, but she first visited the victim in person to offer an apology on his behalf. She asked only that the victim not listen to the defense arguments she would later present in court. As defense counsel, she argued for alternative possibilities regarding how the accident occurred, doing everything she could for her client to the very end.
Novelist Kwon noted that viewing a case from only one side can make an argument appear clear-cut, but that clarity often comes at the cost of distance from reality. Real cases and real people, he observed, cannot be neatly divided into black and white. Attorney Shin's approach—treating the victim with genuine humanity while never neglecting her duty to her client—was presented as an example of exactly this kind of balanced perspective.
Beyond questions of winning or losing in court, this episode reflects a legal philosophy Attorney Shin Min-young has long upheld: one that holds onto basic human decency between people, even within the adversarial process of the law.
| View original article : www.hankookilbo.com/news/article/A2026072310480000479?did=NA
Novelist Kwon Ki-tae recently featured a passage from Attorney Shin Min-young's essay collection in his column.
The case discussed in the column unfolded as follows: a defendant caused a hit-and-run accident, and when the victim chased after him to protest, the defendant struck the victim with his car a second time. Attorney Shin represented the defendant in this case, but she first visited the victim in person to offer an apology on his behalf. She asked only that the victim not listen to the defense arguments she would later present in court. As defense counsel, she argued for alternative possibilities regarding how the accident occurred, doing everything she could for her client to the very end.
Novelist Kwon noted that viewing a case from only one side can make an argument appear clear-cut, but that clarity often comes at the cost of distance from reality. Real cases and real people, he observed, cannot be neatly divided into black and white. Attorney Shin's approach—treating the victim with genuine humanity while never neglecting her duty to her client—was presented as an example of exactly this kind of balanced perspective.
Beyond questions of winning or losing in court, this episode reflects a legal philosophy Attorney Shin Min-young has long upheld: one that holds onto basic human decency between people, even within the adversarial process of the law.
| View original article : www.hankookilbo.com/news/article/A2026072310480000479?did=NA