Woo Youngwoo and Good Partner. Who is the most popular lawyer? Lee Jong-seok vs. Lee Jin-wook, legal sentiment clash

Jul 10, 2025

TVN'Seochodong' actor Lee Jong-suk (left) and actor Lee Jin-wook, who turns into a lawyer on JTBC 's 'Esquire'.Photo =Sports Chosun DB

Following 'Strange Lawyer Woo Young-woo', 'Good Partner', the drama industry is again blowing 'Lawyers Wind'.

While tvN's Saturday-Sunday Drama 'Seochodong' is on air, JTBC's Saturday-Sunday Drama 'Squire: Lawyers Dreaming of Being a Lawyer 'Squire' will continue the enthusiasm of the court play.

tvN 'Seochodong', which first aired on the 5th, depicts the work and human relationship of five lawyers in Seocho-dong, a legal town. Lee Jong-seok and Moon Ga-young played Ahn Joo-hyung, a veteran lawyer with nine years of experience, and Kang Hee-ji, a new lawyer with strong beliefs, respectively, signaling a work-romance chemistry that intersects with coldness and warmth.

Ahn Ju-hyung, played by Lee Jong-seok, is a lawyer who has survived only one law firm, seeking professional coolness and human distancing. By repeating the same routine every day and doing his best, he gained sympathy from office workers and increased the immersion of viewers with a cool court logic and unshakable diction.

Here, Moon Ga-young balances the play by looking at the world from the opposite perspective of Joo-won as Kang Hee-ji, a first-time lawyer who has the ideal of 「If you change one's life, you can change the world」.

Kang Yoo-seok, Ryu Hye-young, and Lim Sung-jae are also active as lawyers. Kang Yoo-seok is a relationship-oriented and chatty Cho Chang-won, Ryu Hye-young is a responsible tough lawyer Bae Moon-jeong, and Lim Sung-jae is in charge of Ha Sang-ki with capitalist values of 'money is the best' to form various characters in the workplace. The drama reflects the professionalism and human aspect of legal professionals at the same time, going back and forth between their offices and courts.

JTBC's new Saturday-Sunday drama 'Squire: Lawyers Dreaming of becoming a Lawyer' (hereinafter 'Squire') will bring the tension of elite lawyers and new lawyers to the fore. Lee Jin-wook and Jung Chae-yeon appear as Yoon Seok-hoon, a powerful partner lawyer at a large law firm Yulim, and Kang Hyo-min, a new lawyer who is full of justice but not good at social life, respectively.

Lee Jin-wook embodies the charisma of perfectionist Yoon Seok-hoon with a suit fit and sharp eyes. He leads victory in court with cold leadership and creative strategies and exudes a presence in the team without saying anything. On the other hand, Jung Chae-yeon plays Kang Hyo-min, an elite but humane junior, and creates a different temperature than her boss with an active attitude of leaning toward her client over the conference room desk.

'Seochodong' and 'Esquire' take a flow similar to previous works that dealt with lawyers' stories, but add human relationships and growth narratives in the workplace to extend them to out-of-court stories. Attention is focusing on whether the two works armed with their individuality and realism will be able to become the next runner', connecting the baton of ENA 'Weird Lawyer Woo Young-woo' and SBS 'Good Partner' which won the grand prize to Jang Na-ra.

Meanwhile, tvN 'Seocho-dong' will air every Saturday at 9:20 p.m., and JTBC 'Squire' will air every Saturday at 10:40 p.m., starting August 2.

mj.cho@sportschosun.com