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.)
