Law and the City

Presentation

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Overview

Synopsis

Ahn Ju Hyeong works as a lawyer, though he never had interest in protecting the weak. Even if he’s worked for the same law firm for the past 9 years, he’s never wanted to open his own law office because it is too much trouble for him. He is comfortable in his perfect workplace, but his peaceful world begins to crack.

My Opinion (No Spoiler)

Law and the City is an excellent legal drama. Characters are well-written and each have a clear evolution. I really liked seeing them grow more mature as individuals, but also as lawyers. Cases are extremely interesting, though they’ve put in many moral dilemmas. The realism of the show adds credibility to the story. Victims’ situations could happen to anyone and it turns out law can sometimes be cruel. The romance is great and I admit that it doesn’t even feel like I’ve watched 12 episodes. My only criticism would be that characters felt quite superficial. We had a lot of insights regarding their present life and future, but very little information on their past and back stories. So, they lacked a little bit of backbone. That’s especially the case for Yum Hye Ran’s character. Though this was not really an issue, it felt quite unusual. Apart from that, this drama is great. I highly recommend it!

Analysis

• Characters’ evolution
  Ahn Ju Hyeong, breaking the routine
  Kang Hee Ji, defending the weak
  Cho Chang Won, finding your path
  Bae Mun Jeong, fighting for your passion
  Ha Sang Gi, fulfilling your dreams
  Kim Hyung Min, starting anew
• The cases
• What it means to be a lawyer

Characters’ evolution: I think Law and the City‘s entire plot revolves around its characters and their transformation. Each of them embarks on a journey and is clearly different at the end from the person they were at the beginning.

Ahn Ju Hyeong, breaking the routine: Ahn Ju Hyeong (Lee Jong Suk) has been an attorney for the past 9 years. He’s got a comfortable life, enjoys his routine and doesn’t want to change it one bit. Many people ask him why he’d spent so long being an associate partner, and his answer is rather simple: he doesn’t want to create trouble for himself. His perspective on his job, career and life start to change when he encounters Kang Hee Ji (Moon Ga Young) again. They first met in Hong Kong, when she was a pianist covering her friend on one of her gigs. He was a law student, excited to start defending people. Kang Hee Ji insufflates a new life into Ahn Ju Hyeong. He’d been so used to doing what he does, so emotionally detached, that he’d forgotten his passion. Kang Hee Ji makes him reflect on the reason why he became a lawyer in the first place. She forced him to feel emotions again, especially towards his clients. She turned him into a human, when he’d transformed into a robot. Thanks to her, Ahn Ju Hyeong starts realizing that he’s not satisfied with his position. He’s uncomfortable with some of the cases he has to defend and his managing partner’s methods. After 10 years of routine, Ahn Ju Hyeong breaks free. At the end of the show, he quits his job and opens his own firm. He can now defend clients he’d refused before and feel at ease with his conscience. On top of that, he’s got Kang Hee Ji to support him.

Kang Hee Ji, defending the weak: Kang Hee Ji used to be a professional pianist, but switched path after her father was scammed. She couldn’t bear to see innocent people, like her father, unjustly suffer and thus turned to law. She’s a passionate person. She’s also highly empathetic, if not sometimes compassionate. Her strength, but also fault, as a lawyer is that she tends to be emotionally too involved in her cases. She’s got a strong sense of justice and feels for her clients when law lets them down. Out of all the characters, I think Kang Hee Ji is the most linear one. As she’s just started as an attorney, it’s just a question of time before she finds the right specialty for her. She eventually finds a way to put her passion to good use by becoming a public defense attorney. She knows that most of her clients would be criminals guilty of their offends, but she’s also convinced that others may be victims of the circumstances. So, she wants to hear their story and help them if possible. At the end of the show, Kang Hee Ji has found love and support with Ahn Ju Hyeong who even opened his office in front of the public defense building she works at.

Cho Chang Won, finding your path: Cho Chang Won (Kang You Seok) handled the most difficult (legal) situations in my opinion. He was forced to become a talking partner to a wealthy criminal in prison, then had to defend questionable clients and often found himself in real moral dilemmas. All of his cases resulted in personal suffering. Throughout the drama, Cho Chang Won spends his time questioning his profession. He wonders why he became a lawyer. At first, he turned to law school because he didn’t want to take over his father’s business. But, it seems like law doesn’t bring him joy or happiness either. Behind his cheerful and optimistic personality, Chang Won constantly doubts his decisions. As he’s about to quit, he’s given a tricky case. A bullied high school student is involved in a stabbing accident against his bully. Cho Chang Won hopes to see this teenager receive a lighter sentence and fights for it. However, his compelling argument doesn’t made the wind turn in his favor. Only the prosecutor in charge managed to protect his client by asking for leniency. This moment is an epiphany for Cho Chang Won, who now wishes to become a prosecutor. Only then can he properly punish the bad guys and protect the good ones. Once his mind is made up, Cho Chang Won announces his resignation to his boss and passes the prosecutor exam. He eventually meets his boss again at a trial, this time as lawyer and prosecutor. Cho Chang Won has found his path and a reason to exert law.

Bae Mun Jeong, fighting for your passion: Bae Mun Jeong (Ryu Hye Young) embodies the dilemma that many women have to go through in life. She loves being a lawyer – that’s why she’s the only one staying at the end – she appreciates the contact with the clients, defending her case at court, and working on various cases. She used to be an in-house attorney and this bored her to death. Mun Jeong is also happily married to Kim Ji Seok (Yun Kyun Sang). He’s a nurse and thus has a crazy schedule as well. But they love each other and make things work. At some point, Bae Mun Jeong discovers that she’s pregnant. This is happy news for her, her husband and her colleagues. Even her parents are more than thrilled. However, this situation puts her in a difficult position. Her boss is not really keen on giving her maternity leave – even if that’s her right – and recommends her to quit. Bae Mun Jeong even envisions going back to a company that provides better benefits for the sake of her family. Yet, she challenges the system instead. She, like many women, wants to be able to have a career and a family without having to sacrifice anything. In the end, she finds her own replacement at work and enforces it with her boss. She also receives full love and support from Ji Seok, who was saddened to see her leave a job she loves. Not going to lie, the relationship between these two was so beautiful. They have each other’s back and communicate their feelings. They are such a great pair.

Ha Sang Gi, fulfilling your dreams: Ha Sang Gi (Im Sung Jae) comes from a poor background and was only able to study law thanks to scholarships. As an adult, he’s learned to save money and has quite a comfortable life now. Although he’s very good at his job, Ha Sang Gi has never pursued other studies. He wanted to, but he also felt the urgent need to earn money. When he’s given the opportunity to teach interns, he’s more than thrilled. Teaching is a passion and he’s very good at it. That’s why her boss recommends him a doctorate program. This means he’d have to quit his job and go back to school. Sang Gi is conflicted at first, but chooses the path that makes him happy aka the one that helps him fulfill his dreams of teaching. On top of that, he also ends up with his boss who turned out to be his greatest supporter.

Kim Hyung Min, starting anew: At first, I thought that Kim Hyung Min (Yum Hye Ran) was going to be a bad character. Then, I wondered if she had any secrets related to one of the attorneys. But she just turned out to be a random rich woman who wanted to be a lawyer. She couldn’t do that in her youth, so she jumped on the opportunity of becoming an advisor of Hyunmin Law Firm. Kim Hyung Min is actually very kind and wise. She’s full of good advice and benevolence. Meeting actual lawyers change her life as well. At the end of the show, she decides to give her dream a second chance and start anew. She goes to law school and ends up in Sang Gi’s class. There’s no age to start again.

The cases: The drama is excellent at depicting cases that stand in the grey area. Law is not binary and neither are cases. They involve people, personal judgements, emotions and require rational thinking and human feelings. I think the drama shed light essentially on the cruelty of law. There are 3 cases in particular that really moved me. The first one is about the poor lady who was used as a mole to scam others. She believed that she was going to receive a loan and accepted her account to be used to transfer money. But this made her an accomplice to the scammers unbeknownst to her. She received a heavy sentence with a million-won fine that she obviously couldn’t pay. She thus ended up in prison. The second case is related to the high student who was bullied and stabbed his bully in self-defense. Although he only received probation, he would’ve gone to prison if the prosecutor had not intervened. The third case is Hee Ji’s first client as a public defender. An elderly woman has killed her brother who was sick and demented. The reason is because she’s in the final stage of cancer and no one would’ve taken care of her brother after her death. So, she had to make the horrible decision to end his life first. These are just examples, but the drama is full of credible situations that could happen to quite anyone. Cases are raw and tough, rulings sometimes cruel and unfair.

What it means to be a lawyer: In that context, you start wondering what it means to be lawyer. I’ve probably watched dozens of legal dramas, so I know now that a lawyer cares about his client, period. No matter the story, no matter the case, no matter the victim, a lawyer’s duty is to defend his client. This statement is valid even when that same attorney doesn’t agree with his clients’ crimes. Ahn Ju Hyeong is forced to defend a company that clearly bullies its employees; he even has to defend his ex-girlfriend’s abusive husband; Cho Chang Won must protect a wealthy chaebol, etc… Truth is good to know as an individual, but it’s not required in your job. That’s how cruel the work is. For some lawyers, it’s fine. Ahn Ju Hyeong, for instance, has learned to live with it. For others, like Kang Hee Ji, it’s absolutely impossible to dissociate the concept of good and bad from her job.

P.S.: The numerous scenes at the restaurant or around food really reminded me of our favorite doctors from Hospital Playlist. This drama is like its legal version!