You might think that something isn’t a crime until a court issues a not-guilty verdict.
However, the best-case scenario is for the prosecution not to indict it at all.
In other words, a decision not to prosecute.
This means the prosecutor doesn’t file a lawsuit with the court.
Considering that in Korea, only prosecutors have the right to prosecute, this power is immense.
‘But that’s impossible right now.’
Haeum is in the intensive care unit, and her time there isn’t long.
It’s already a burden for a prosecutor not to indict in a case involving severe injury—a serious condition—but the victim has now died.
Moreover, the suspect had already vehemently appealed for leniency even before seeing Haeum’s diary.
This means there’s nothing advantageous for us.
So, I decided to take a gamble: using the power of the media.
If public opinion sides with Mr. Lee Chil-hong, the prosecutor will be able to issue a non-prosecution without much burden.
I had already discussed this with Lawyer Ahn Gyeong-hun when Mr. Lee Chil-hong’s son and his wife visited our law firm.
He made the same expression he’s making now.
“I also want to prevent this case from being indicted no matter what. But you know very well that it’s realistically impossible.”
There’s a significant burden on a prosecutor not to indict a case where someone has died.
It’s unlikely they would bear that burden for Mr. Lee Chil-hong, who is essentially a socially vulnerable person.
“If there’s a way, will you definitely do it?”
“I can’t promise to jump into a fiery pit, but I can dance in front of it, even if my skin gets singed.”
“That’s a very lawyer-like answer.”
Even in this situation, Lawyer Ahn Gyeong-hun only spoke the truth.
No matter how much you want to help someone else, sacrificing your life for them is a different matter entirely.
Even in a situation where exaggeration wouldn’t be strange, he promised the best he could do.
“Then you’ve promised?”
“Pardon?”
I smiled and replied to Lawyer Ahn’s question.
“Dancing in front of the fiery pit.”
The fiery pit was soon to descend upon Rian & Yeon.
“Even after coming back, the workload hasn’t decreased significantly.”
Half of it is my own doing, so I can’t help it.
I’ve gotten deeply involved in the Ahn Eum case, as well as Mr. Lee Chil-hong’s case.
Furthermore, creating performance for Lawyer Ahn is still ongoing.
‘Fortunately, this quarter, Lawyer Ahn wasn’t called by the senior managing partner.’
Is this finally escaping the private meetings! It’s too early to celebrate though.
Considering the number of lawyers relative to our company’s sales, we’ve probably just escaped the bottom.
This is just the beginning.
More urgent than Lawyer Ahn’s situation is my current state.
And the person approaching me with quick steps has contributed significantly to that.
“Yoo-hee!”
Hmm, putting an exclamation mark on my name means they’re quite urgent.
It was clear they were about to drop a bomb.
“You know the application for real estate provisional attachment needs to go out by tomorrow, right?”
No, I’m hearing this for the first time.
I shook my head, anticipating their next words.
“Didn’t you get the email I sent?”
“No, you didn’t send me a separate email.”
“Oh, I must have forgotten. Just a moment!”
Lawyer Hyun Ah-jin, who is lenient with her own mistakes, scurried back to her office.
Then she sent me an email and returned to my desk.
“Did the email arrive?”
“Not yet.”
I immediately sensed that this provisional attachment case would be tough.
There were two reasons: Lawyer Hyun Ah-jin, who always rushes everything, gave me a case due tomorrow only this afternoon, and the email still hadn’t arrived.
This meant the email had a significant file size.
“It just arrived.”
As expected.
I stiffened my expression looking at the file attached to the email.
“If it’s here, open my email quickly.”
Hyun Ah-jin, who was watching next to me, pointed to the monitor with her chin.
A deep sigh escaped me the moment I opened the file.
There were nearly 100 debtors, meaning opponents.
“You’ll have plenty of time until tomorrow, so please prepare it without a hitch.”
The standard of “plenty of time” is relative.
If this case only involved a few parties, it wouldn’t have been a wrong statement.
I called out to Lawyer Hyun Ah-jin, who was turning away with a satisfied expression as if she had finished her work.
“Excuse me, Lawyer, are these applications going out per debtor?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’ll take quite a bit of time.”
“So?”
It was the answer I expected, so I wasn’t greatly flustered.
That doesn’t mean I wasn’t angry though.
This was before the introduction of electronic litigation.
I had to print out 100 applications for provisional attachment of claims, along with the corresponding evidence and attachments, one by one, stamp them, and create submission copies.
That meant it was impossible for me to do it alone in one day.
Moreover, I have a fair amount of work from Lawyer Ahn and Lawyer Yoon, not just Hyun Ah-jin.
“Lawyer, it’ll be difficult by tomorrow.”
“Oh, what’s difficult? You did the exact same thing well last time.”
Last time, we attached bank deposits for provisional attachment of claims.
It was such a massive amount that I, who usually takes things in stride, couldn’t forget it.
‘Moreover, how are deposits and real estate the same?’
Unlike bank deposits, real estate has a ‘registry’ that records the rights related to the property, and the provisional attachment must be registered there.
What does this mean? It means I have to pay taxes.
And in 2004, at the current time, I have to go to the district office of the real estate’s address to process it.
Of course, fieldwork is the litigation team’s job, but I have to prepare the documents they’ll take.
This means it takes at least 1.5 times longer than claims.
I explained this as clearly as possible.
Then Hyun Ah-jin’s expression hardened.
“Difficult by tomorrow? Do you know how much trouble I went through to make this application?”
I created and provided the basic information for the application, and while there are many debtors and properties to attach, the basic rights are the same.
This means that a certain portion can be copy-pasted, and that Hyun Ah-jin didn’t go through too much trouble.
Of course, given Hyun Ah-jin’s personality, who hates working more than death, even that would have been difficult for her.
‘She doesn’t put off work until the last minute for nothing.’
But I can’t just take this.
I know how this company operates better than anyone, so I plan to use that to my advantage.
“Lawyer, in other teams, when this many real estate provisional attachment applications go out, several secretaries share the work.”
To complete such an overwhelming amount of work on time, there’s no other way.
“But Yoo-hee, you’re competent, so you can do it alone, right?”
In my previous life, I would have somehow managed it.
I would have fallen for that “you’re competent” gaslighting.
That’s how much I wanted to be recognized at work, and Hyun Ah-jin knew that very well.
The more I think about it, the more I realize I lived like a fool.
“It has nothing to do with competence, Lawyer. To finish this by tomorrow, it’s a level where even staying up all night might not be enough.”
Then, just do that.
Hyun Ah-jin’s eyes seemed to say.
Of course, I had done that until now.
That’s why Hyun Ah-jin was standing there so confidently.
But I was the only secretary at Lee & Yeon who worked all night on things like this.
Even until I died, it was still just me.
‘Our company doesn’t even operate on a three-shift system; why would a secretary work all night?’
Regardless of anything else, it’s illegal for an employee to stay up all night so often.
There’s a limit to extended working hours, and I should have been given vacation time for exceeding those hours, but there was nothing of the sort.
From the start, Hyun Ah-jin didn’t have the authority to give me vacation time in exchange for making me work all night.
Our positions might be different, but we’re both employed by the company.
“As you know, Lawyer, I’ve already far exceeded the working hours stipulated by the Labor Standards Act this month.”
It’s not just a few more hours of work.
It’s almost double what others work.
“So, my physical condition is so bad that it wouldn’t be strange if I collapsed right now.”
“…”
Hyun Ah-jin knew my usual workload, so she knew it wasn’t an exaggeration.
So what if one secretary collapses? Lee & Yeon is a law firm.
And it’s one of the top five law firms in Korea.
Would such a law firm violate the Labor Standards Act to the extent that an employee has to be carried out? Of course, it wouldn’t be a major blemish on Lee & Yeon, but it’s different for Hyun Ah-jin personally.
As an employee, causing an incident serious enough to be talked about is definitely a problem.
‘That’s why I deliberately mentioned the Labor Standards Act.’
Sure enough.
Hyun Ah-jin’s eyes, which had been so confident until now, began to waver.
It was at that moment.
Lawyer Yoon Yi-hoon came out of his office, carrying a litigation record envelope, and said: “That’s right. It wouldn’t be strange at all if Secretary Kim collapsed. Oh dear, I’m truly sorry.”
“Why, Lawyer Yoon, why are you sorry?”
“Because I always make you do so much work.”
Lawyer Yoon offered the litigation records he had brought.
It was a mere featherweight compared to the work Hyun Ah-jin had given me, but he also didn’t forget to give instructions in advance.
“Since we won this case, please apply for the determination of litigation costs at the court as I mentioned.”
“Yes, when would you like me to submit it by?”
“By tomorrow.”
“Hmm, by tomorrow, Lawyer Hyun Ah-jin asked me to submit 100 real estate provisional attachment applications to the court.”
“Wow, 100 real estate provisional attachments?! Even if you did it with other staff, it would be difficult.”
“I have to do it alone…”
“Ahahahahaha.”
Just before I could say, ‘…was instructed to do it alone,’ Lawyer Hyun Ah-jin suddenly burst into laughter.
This meant she knew how absurd it was herself.
“Yoo-hee, you do have quite a bit of work.”
“Quite a bit, Lawyer? It’s an insane amount. The workload was already excessive, but with the case I’m collaborating on with Lawyer Seo Il-hwa and the sudden acceleration case, I’m genuinely suffocating.”
Hyun Ah-jin had heard bits and pieces from a secretary.
She knew that Lawyer Ahn Gyeong-hun taking on Lawyer Seo Il-hwa’s food sanitation law violation case had increased the workload.
However, Hyun Ah-jin didn’t pay much attention to it.
She was well aware that “that person” often made secretaries do various tasks for performance.
What difference would adding more to that make?
‘Ah, it could affect me.’
Just look at now.
Kim Yoo-hee, who used to obediently do whatever she was told, is now spewing nonsense about not being able to do it alone.
This is all because she’s gotten some wild ideas.
‘No matter how many cases she handles, she’s still just a secretary.’
And the only employee at Lee & Yeon from a provincial university.
But Yoon Yi-hoon is different.
He’s from a prestigious legal family that has produced Supreme Court justices and chief prosecutors, and he’s a true elite from Korea University.
In short, even though Lawyer Yoon is a year junior, Hyun Ah-jin needs to be mindful of her image.
Hyun Ah-jin started sweating nervously in this entirely unexpected situation.