법률문서 자동작성 서비스의 규율에 관한 연구

Recent technological developments have enabled the automation of legal document drafting. Several legal tech companies in South Korea have recently begun the on-line legal document drafting services to consumers, and the market is growing rapidly. However, the service providers are not attorneys, which poses legal risks regarding to the unauthorized practice of law under the Attorneys-at-law Act. This paper examines the existing Korean law and the Korean Bar Association’s opinions on this issue. It also reviews the laws and precedents of the United States and Germany, including the recent decisions on smartlaw.de made by LG Köln and OLG Köln. Based on the comparative study, it concludes that the ‘unauthorized practice of law’ should be narrowly construed to allow non-lawyers’ automated legal drafting services. It also recommends that the KBA should announce guidelines on such services, aiming to protect consumers and to promote the access to justice, and that the service providers should adopt the guidelines voluntarily.