ACRC made it easy to choose proxy-reporting advisory lawyers

- Proxy-reporting lawyers’ information discloser has been expanded certificates, areas of consultation of interest-

July 7, 2020

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

To help whistleblowers choose a proxy-reporting advisory lawyer with more ease, more detailed information on such lawyers will be disclosed, including the area of expertise, licenses, and the area of consultation of interest, along with their public-interest activities.

Last month, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission(ACRC, Chairperson Jeon Hyun Heui) expanded the scope of information disclosure of the proxy-reporting lawyers in order to encourage whistleblowers to make better use of the Proxy-Reporting Lawyer Group (consisting of 49 lawyers) operated by the commission.

In the past, proxy-reporting lawyers’ regional association and their public-interest work experiences were disclosed on the Integrity Portal (www.clean.go.kr). According to whistleblowers and proxy reporting lawyers, however, such information had limits in helping whisleblowers choose the right lawyer appropriate to the content of reporting. In response, proxy reporting lawyers’ area of expertise and certificates (eg. doctors, or patent attorney, etc.) registered to the Korea Bar Association has been added to the information subject to disclosure.

In addition, for effective and professional consultation, six areas of consultation of interest were added, which include public health, safety, environment, consumer interest, fair competition, and the equivalent areas in public interest violation.

To promote the proxy-reporting system which was adopted in October 2018, the ACRC in July 2019 formed a group of proxy-reporting advisory lawyers, allowing whistelblowers to use the system without concerns over legal fees.

Director General Han Sam-Seok for Inspection and Protection Bureau of the ACRC said, “I hope that the expansion of the disclosure of proxy-reporting lawyer information could contribute to the enhancement of proxy-reporting lawyers’s expertise and citizen trust towards them, so that the proxy-reporting system could be widely used” He added, “the ACRC will continue to improve the system so as to help public interest whistleblowers use the system with ease and without any worries.