변호사 신탁계좌에 관한 연구

Attorney trust account is a separate bank account opened by a lawyer to segregate and account for monies received from clients or third parties in the course of their legal practice. The legal practice of lawyers has become very comprehensive and complex. The sources of money handled by lawyers have diversified in name and amount, and lawyers' financial misconduct is constantly occurring. Attorney misconduct stems primarily from the unethical behavior of the lawyer, but can also be traced to the practice of commingling client money with the lawyer's personal account or the law firm's general account. Therefore, attorney trust account system should be introduced to keep client money separate from the lawyer's personal account, rather than relying solely on the lawyer's ethics and treating it as an afterthought as a breach of the lawyer's duty of loyalty or dignity. Attorney trust accounts are already a global trend. If it is operated in conjunction with a public interest program, such as the U.S. IOLTA program, it will further enhance the purpose of the system and increase the credibility of lawyers and lawyers' organizations. This paper illustrates the usefulness of the attorney trust account system by analyzing the financial relationship between lawyers and clients and disciplinary cases. It introduces overseas cases that have already introduced the attorney trust account system and proposes a desirable attorney trust account system by examining the arguments and issues that may be raised in the process of introduction.