AI is expanding legal roles: Key takeaways from Law Expo Seoul 2025
At Law Expo Seoul 2025, the message was clear: AI isn't shrinking legal work-it's shifting it upward. Former minister Park Young-Sun told attendees that as AI scales, legal professionals will be central to national strategies and industrial policy.
"As AI develops, the role of legal professionals as advisers in providing solutions linked to national strategies and industrial policies will become extremely important because new laws will be enacted and enforcement decrees will be amended," said Park. This wasn't theory-South Korea's AI infrastructure plans are accelerating, and legal teams are already in the room where decisions get made.
Where legal demand will surge
Park spotlighted infrastructure as Exhibit A. With major chip and compute investments moving ahead, legal teams will be pivotal in securing permits, structuring long-horizon contracts, and setting governance for AI infrastructure.
She added a practical warning: "While some only simply do as AI systems recommend, we must equip ourselves with the ability to assess AI as an assistant." In other words: judgment over blind acceptance. Expect more work, not less-just more complex and business-critical.
Inside the expo
The three-day event at the aT Center drew nearly 2,000 participants and was co-hosted by the In-House Counsel Forum (IHCF), the Law Times, and Messe Esang. Supreme Court justice Roh Tae-ak and IHCF president Jung Won-Young delivered congratulatory speeches, and a message from President Lee Jae Myung was read by the emcee.
Legaltech booths were packed, panels ran on the latest shifts in Korea's legal market, and a mentoring lunch connected lawyers across in-house, private practice, and consulting backgrounds. The goal was simple: help legal professionals expand their skill sets and map smarter career moves.
IHCF's focus: mentorship, global reach, and AI capability
Jung Won-Young shared why IHCF helped lead the event: the market is changing fast, and in-house lawyers want real guidance. "We prepared these programmes to offer consultations with experts who can serve as reliable guides," she said.
Jung sees AI offloading time-consuming tasks-and handing legal teams more consequential work. Her advice to future legal professionals: build the skill to use AI effectively and manage end-to-end workflows with greater efficiency.
IHCF now counts more than 2,600 members across 16 jurisdictions. With many young lawyers eyeing overseas roles, IHCF plans deeper collaboration with in-house associations abroad to expand learning and mobility.
What in-house teams should do next
- Set AI governance now: define risk thresholds, approval paths, and audit trails for AI-assisted decisions.
- Build contract playbooks for AI infrastructure: long-term capacity, termination flexibility, data rights, uptime, cybersecurity, and export controls.
- Tighten data policy: retention, anonymization, cross-border transfers, and vendor access-especially for model training and fine-tuning.
- Create procurement standards for AI vendors: security questionnaires, model transparency, incident response, and IP indemnities.
- Map regulatory change: track new statutes and enforcement decrees that affect AI deployment, privacy, labor, and competition.
- Coordinate with the business: form an AI review council with IT, security, compliance, and operations to keep decisions aligned and fast.
- Upskill the team: prompt fluency, AI-assisted research, and review workflows to improve speed without losing judgment.
Sponsors and supporters
Platinum: BNK Financial Group, Law & Company, BHSN. Gold: Amazon Web Services Korea, Smile Shark. Silver: Lawting, LG AI Research, Nepla, D&A, Trust Tax, Seohwadam Law Offices.
A practical note on capability building
If your team is moving from interest to implementation, start with small, auditable use cases and scale what works. For structured learning paths and tools, explore curated AI programs by job function at Complete AI Training.
The opportunity is straightforward: AI will automate the busywork, and legal will own the decisions that actually move the business. That's the work worth doing.
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