Legal Aid – YEWON KIM

In Activities

“I’ll Stand by the Victim”: Visually Impaired Lawyer Kim Ye‑won’s Fight for Disability and Human Rights

April 17, 2026 No Comments

2020.09.18 08:38

Kim Ye‑won is the founder and sole staff member of the Disability Rights Law Center, a Seoul‑based nonprofit that provides free legal support to disabled people, women, and children who have suffered human rights violations. She handles everything from initial counseling and paperwork to policy research, splitting her time between her office in Seocho and family life in Gwangju. Despite a grueling schedule and frequent calls, Kim draws energy from her work and was recognized this year with the 12th Young Ilga Award for her public‑interest contributions.

Born with vision loss in one eye due to a medical error, Kim decided early on to become a lawyer so she could stand by individuals rather than just make objective rulings. After training at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, she helped establish a public‑interest legal fund and worked with organizations such as Dongcheon and the Seoul Disability Rights Center, where she handled over 1,000 cases and helped secure precedent recognizing prosthetic leg damage as a work injury. In 2017 she founded the Disability Rights Law Center to expand her ability to take on sensitive and systemic cases; the center operates without charging clients, relying on the legal fund and income from lectures and research.

Kim emphasizes solidarity and empowerment in her approach: many victims do not recognize their own abuse or feel able to speak out, and gaining their trust is the first step toward justice. She credits coalition work with other groups and activists for untangling complex cases and takes strength from seeing clients reclaim their voices in court and in life. Kim also calls for moving beyond rigid divisions—such as normal/abnormal or disabled/non‑disabled—and instead fostering inclusive, collective solutions to social problems.

Original source: [만남] 김예원 장애인권법센터 변호사 “피해자 곁에 서겠습니다” (Source: the news outlet; please refer to the original article.)

In Activities

‘Tall Aunt’ of Justice: How Lawyer Kim Yewon Abandoned Stability to Fight for the Marginalized

April 17, 2026 No Comments

2020-08-26 00:01
Kim Yewon is a public-interest lawyer who has devoted her career to defending people pushed to the margins—primarily people with disabilities, women, and children. Known affectionately as a ‘키다리 아줌마’ (a benefactor figure), she handles difficult, often overlooked cases that other systems leave behind, spending long hours consulting clients and connecting them with practical supports while pursuing legal remedies. She emphasizes that many people with borderline or less visible disabilities fall through social blind spots that demand sensitive, sustained intervention rather than quick fixes.

Her path into public-interest law grew from faith-based legal circles during training and early work at a major law firm’s public-interest foundation. Dissatisfied with restrictive jurisdictions and fragmented services, she left stable positions to found the nonprofit solo practice Disability Rights Law Center, where she does not charge legal fees and funds work through lectures and writing. Supported by her husband—also a legal professional—Kim balances multiple roles as a mother, center director, and activist, and has proactively earned social work and sexual-violence counseling qualifications to better support clients beyond litigation.

A person with a disability herself (she lost one eye at birth), Kim brings lived experience to policy priorities such as deinstitutionalization and reforming the disability grading system. She also works on preventing sexual violence within churches, advocating democratic communication and preventive structures rather than reactive litigation alone. Recently recognized with a public-service award, she describes her goals simply: living faithfully day by day, raising her children well, and continuing long-term work in public-interest law to ensure no one is left in a human-rights blind spot.

Original source: [나와 예수-김예원] “인권 사각지대 없도록…” ‘키다리 아줌마’ 변호사 안정 버리고 낮은 곳으로 (Source: the news outlet; please refer to the original article.)

In Activities

The ‘Zero‑Won’ Lawyer Plugging Systemic Holes: How Kim Ye‑won Fights for the Most Vulnerable

April 17, 2026 No Comments

23.07.21 17:05
Kim Ye‑won is a public‑interest lawyer who refuses to charge fees, leading a Disability Rights Law Center that provides free legal support to social minorities—people with disabilities, women, and children. A former public interest lawyer at a major foundation and a founder of her own center, she chose independence over donations so she can act without outside pressure. Now a visiting scholar at Duke and a mother of three, Kim balances litigation, advocacy and public education while sustaining her work through lectures, books and research contracts.

Her practice focuses on the hardest, most overlooked cases others won’t take: severe disability, sexual exploitation, and complex family or guardianship situations. Kim combines traditional legal work—evidence collection, criminal complaints and courtroom representation—with social‑work style interventions, coordinating with welfare offices, shelters and local agencies to relocate and protect clients. One striking example: she uncovered an organized sexual exploitation ring targeting a disabled woman, secured arrests, and arranged safe housing and ongoing supports.

Beyond individual cases, Kim pursues system fixes through both urgent administrative measures and long‑term law reform: contacting government departments, filing petitions, requesting legal interpretations, and pushing institutions to close procedural gaps that put vulnerable people at risk. She highlights how piecemeal government responses often miss people in crisis and stresses the need for integrated supports—employment programs for crime‑affected disabled women, safer account‑management rules, and clearer interagency pathways. Her model shows how uncompromised, holistic legal work can plug institutional holes and produce life‑changing outcomes for those left behind.

Original source: 제도의 구멍 때우는 0원짜리 변호사 (Source: the news outlet; please refer to the original article.)

In Activities

Pay a Little Attention: How Lawyer Kim Yewon Is Transforming Disability Rights in Korea

April 17, 2026 No Comments

2019년04월23일 14:35
Kim Yewon, a lawyer who lost sight in one eye at birth, founded the Disability Rights Law Center in 2017 to provide pro bono legal help and advocate for people with disabilities. Drawing on experience at a major law firm and a public-interest legal foundation, she has offered over 1,000 free consultations before opening the center and hundreds more since, focusing on everyday legal access gaps faced by social minorities and people with disabilities.

Through her casework Kim exposes systemic failures in the justice system when disability is not taken into account. She recounts wrongful outcomes—such as a long-term labor exploitation case where only about 2 million won was initially recognized—resulting from investigations and trials that ignored disability characteristics. Kim also highlights the particular vulnerability of women with disabilities to sexual exploitation and the absence of specialized public defenders or tailored legal processes for abuse victims.

Beyond individual cases, Kim is pushing for law and policy changes: improved support for online and anonymous sexual exploitation victims, legal recognition of disabled people as victims rather than offenders, and accessible voting materials (easy-to-read ballots and public materials) for people with developmental disabilities. She urges the public to pay attention and report injustices—small acts of interest and intervention, she says, can change a life—and pledges to continue advocating for institutional reforms and expanded victim support.

Original source: [변남변녀] 김예원, “장애인들의 인권에 조금만 관심을 기울여 주세요” (Source: the news outlet; please refer to the original article.)

In Activities

After ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’: Public Interest in Autism Rises — but Korea’s Disability Support Budget Still Lags

April 17, 2026 No Comments

2022-09-16 00:05
Public awareness of autism and developmental disabilities in South Korea has grown since the hit drama ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo,’ but advocacy groups warn that attention alone cannot prevent recurring tragedies in families caring for people with developmental disabilities. Kim Ye-won, founder and lead attorney of the Disability Rights Law Center, says fatal incidents continue to happen monthly despite increased visibility, and that structural problems—particularly chronic underfunding—are the root cause.

Kim, a visually impaired lawyer who has worked in public-interest law for over a decade and runs a pro bono practice handling 50–100 cases at a time, was recently named a Kakao Impact Fellow and is currently a visiting scholar at Duke University. She uses fellowship support to sustain legal aid and plans regional collaborations to help vulnerable urban populations. Kim emphasizes she selects cases she can meaningfully support—often representing people who cannot pay—and rejects comparisons to dramatized portrayals despite the media attention.

The policy gap is stark: the 2023 Ministry of Health and Welfare budget allocates only 4.8 billion KRW for deinstitutionalization out of roughly 2.2 trillion KRW classed as disability rights spending, and Korea’s disability welfare budget equals just 0.61% of GDP versus the OECD average of 2.02%. Kim calls for significantly increased funding and staffing for community-based supports and ‘deinstitutionalization,’ and continues advocacy work including successful legal reforms (e.g., 2016 changes allowing visually impaired applicants to sit certain driving tests) and current research at Duke on victim support systems for hard-to-detect, power-based crimes like child abuse and intimate-partner sexual violence.

Original source: “장애인에 관심 커졌지만 예산지원 아직 멀어” (Source: the news outlet; please refer to the original article.)

In Activities

Why Ballot Photos Could Unlock Voting for People with Disabilities — One Lawyer’s Call for Lasting Support

April 17, 2026 No Comments

2018.05.14 19:26
Ahead of local elections, disability-rights lawyer Kim Ye-won argues a simple change — adding candidates’ photos to ballots, as Taiwan does — would make voting far easier for people with developmental disabilities. She criticizes the Public Official Election Act for omitting photos and laments that the same accessibility concerns resurface every election cycle without reform. Kim’s proposal highlights practical, low-cost adjustments that could significantly increase meaningful political participation for disabled voters.

Kim’s own story and work illustrate the stakes. Born with an eye injury, she built a legal career through merit, then founded the Disability Rights Law Center to provide free legal aid to people facing rights violations because of disability. Working with abused, abandoned, and exploited individuals, she documents how legal and institutional gaps — for example, no guaranteed state-appointed counsel in many disability abuse cases — leave vulnerable people without recourse. Her center operates with minimal resources yet addresses severe, long-standing injustices.

Rather than one-off charity or paternalistic “fix-it” approaches, Kim urges sustained, empowering assistance: trained supporters who provide information and accompaniment so disabled people can make their own decisions. She warns against treating disabled people as passive objects of protection and calls for systemic reforms and continuous local support to secure rights and dignity. Her message is both practical and moral: inclusive changes and steady help now protect everyone, because anyone can become vulnerable.

Original source: 장애인도 편하게 투표할 수 있는 날 기다려요 – 매일경제 (Source: the news outlet; please refer to the original article.)

In Activities

Visually Impaired Lawyer Kim Yewon Wins Hyupseong Social Contribution Award (₩50M) for Championing the Vulnerable

March 2, 2026 No Comments

On October 24 at the Koreana Hotel in Seoul, attorney Kim Yewon, a visually impaired lawyer and head of the Disability Rights Law Center, received the Hyupseong Social Contribution Award. The prize, presented by Jeong Cheolwon, chairman of Hyupseong Comprehensive Construction and founder of the Hyupseong Cultural Foundation, carries a monetary award of ₩50 million. The foundation, established in 2010, supports social contribution and scholarship initiatives in Busan and beyond.

Kim has provided pro bono legal support for socially vulnerable groups—including women, children, people with disabilities, and migrants—focusing on public-interest litigation rather than financial gain. At the ceremony, Jeong praised her dedication to helping marginalized people and victims of crime, calling her a model legal professional who helps build a warmer society.

Accepting the award, Kim pledged to continue working humbly so that the voices of those who suffer are respected within institutions and society. The recognition underscores the importance of legal aid, disability rights advocacy, and the role of public-interest lawyers in advancing social justice and inclusion.

📌 원본 출처: v.daum.net