Stay on topic and don't be blunt
Extraordinary Attorney Woo is a Korean legal dramedy that debuted in 2022. It airs on ENA in Korea with episodes simultaneously released on Netflix for international audiences.
Woo Young-woo is Korea's first autistic lawyer. Newly hired by Hanbada, one of the country's most-prestigious law firms, Young-woo represents her clients with gusto while slowly learning that justice is not quite as straightforward as the law. As she does so, Woo Gwang-ho, her single father, frets over her, worried about how his daughter will fare as she becomes more independent.
At Hanbada, Young-woo comes under the tutelage of Jung Myung-seok, a senior attorney who patiently molds her into a litigator who can benefit the firm. She also comes into close contact with Lee Jun-ho, a member of the firm's support staff and all-around nice guy, who stirs strong emotions within her.
The series became an immediate global success and has been renewed for a second season, due to be released in 2024. There is also a 60-issue comic-book adaptation of the first season, an upcoming musical adaptation, and a US adaptation in the works.
This series provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Geu-ra-mi's given name (Dong Geu-ran) and nickname (Dong Geu-ra-mi) mean "round" and "circle", respectively, in reference to actress Joo Hyun-young's round face.
- Actually Pretty Funny:
- Geu-ra-mi initially denies wanting to be Young-woo's friend in school. Young-woo bluntly points out Geu-ra-mi doesn't exactly have any other options in that department, which actually makes Geu-ra-mi laugh out loud at the audacity.
- In Episode 6, the judge scolds Young-woo for cutting the prosecuting attorney off and tells her such behavior won't be tolerated in his courtroom, which she accepts. When the judge cuts Su-yeon off not a minute later, Young-woo throws this statement back in his face. The prosecutor is clearly repressing a snicker at this.
- Adults Are Useless:
- From what we can see, the teachers in Young-woo's high school did nothing to protect her from the severe bullying she received, and also failed to effectively discipline or engage with Geu-ra-mi. One silver lining is this led the two of them to become friends and stick together.
- Averted by Young-woo's father. He struggled to raise her alone and navigate her disability, and admits it was very hard to connect with her at first, but overall he did a fantastic job and loves his daughter unconditionally. He can be a touch overprotective, but it comes from a good place, and even now that she's grown, he's still a constant support system in her life.
- Adult Hater: Surprisingly downplayed by Bang Gu-ppong. He openly considers the education system and even most parents to be the inherent enemy of children's wellbeing, and encourages his "charges" to subvert and rebel against their parents' rigid expectations. However, he's perfectly cordial to everyone, even apologizing to the bus driver he drugged and knocked out after the fact.
- Aggressive Categorism: The doctor who diagnosed Lee Sun-yeong has quite the... unsavory attitude towards North Korean refugees. Young-woo casts doubt on his reliability by getting him to out himself as a bigot in court, though it costs Hanbada a major client when it turns out said doctor was a high-ranking member of a seemingly large doctors' association.
- The Alleged Boss: Park Min-shik, the owner of the pub Geu-ra-mi works at. She generally walks all over him and calls him "Hairy" instead of "Boss"note , but he's too kind-hearted to do much about discipline.
- Amicable Exes: After Myeong-su is hospitalized for stomach cancer, Ji-su, his ex-wife comes by to check up on him and provides him with a tablet loaded with episodes of his favorite sitcom.
- Animal Motifs: Young-woo loves reading about whales and can't stop sharing her trivia about them with others. She also imagines whales swimming in the air wherever she goes and decorates her bedroom with them.
- Apologetic Attacker: In order to commandeer a school bus, Bang Gu-ppong drugged the driver's tea so he'd pass out. When meeting him in court later, he politely apologizes and says his intent wasn't to hurt him; it was simply the only way he could take the bus. The bus driver does a Double Take, seemingly taken aback at his assailant's manners.
- Artistic License – Law: Every criminal case Hanbada takes to court ends up being a jury trial. Trial-by-jury is exceedingly rare in Korea. In fact, it was only introduced in the 21st century as an option criminal defendants can take and it has yet to truly catch on.
- Bait-and-Switch Suicide: Jun-ho discovers Young-woo about to hang herself in her office and stops her just as she's about to slip the noose around her neck. It then turns out to be a misguided experiment regarding the case of the week.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Young-woo takes a bad fall that puts her in the hospital. However, the only mark on her is a light scratch on one cheek that is gone by the next scene.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Su-yeon and Min-woo early on in the Jeju trip. This changes to Unresolved Sexual Tension when both mutually decide that their confessions never happened and when the latter completely drops their Jerkass tendencies.
- Benevolent Boss:
- Myung-seok. Notably, he turns from being skeptical of Young-woo's appointment into being one of her most ardent supporters in the firm.
- Han Seon-young, CEO of Hanbada, as well. She's polite to her employees, tolerates their quirks and even goes as far as checking in on their well-beings.
- Berserk Button: Young-woo can't bear the thought of children being separated from their parents. This prompts her to passionately take up a case that's all but impossible to winnote and turns her against another client after she sees that he's going to abandon his family for his mistress.
- Bifauxnen: Hwa-young's girlfriend in Episode 2 is absolutely stunning, and looks like a bishie hero, complete with a dashing suit.
- Bilingual Bonus: Whenever Young-woo gives her famous Fun with Palindromes introduction, the English subtitles
give examples of words that are palindromes in English (Kayak, deed, rotator, noon, racecar.) but the actual examples she gives in Korean are 기러기 (Geese) 토마토 (Tomato) 스위스 (Swiss) 인도인 (Delivery) and 별똥별 (Shooting star). - Big Brother Bully: Geu-ra-mi's father has two older brothers who have a long history of taking advantage of him. However, he lionizes his siblings so much that he excuses their behavior. It's not until they steal his inheritance and saddle him with enormous debts that he starts to understand how badly he's been treated.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The theme for Episode 11 is that outwardly nice people can be hiding ugly personalities.
- The client of the week initially presents himself as a devoted husband and father who only fell into bad habits out of desperation. However, he soon reveals himself to be an abusive cheater only out for himself.
- Su-yeon starts dating a man she met in the previous episode. He appears to be charming and caring but is unmasked as a conman who targets young women in high-paying jobs and bilks them out of large sums of cash.
- Bland-Name Product: Korea has fairly strict rules about the use of genuine product names and logos on TV, so the show uses some workarounds.
- Scenes set outside and in the lobby of the building where Hanbada's offices are located are shot at a real building in Seoul called the "CENTERFIELD". For the series, the building's name is awkwardly transformed into "CENTERBIOLD".
- The suspicious e-mail attachment in episode 15, the one used to hack a company's system, is a "Macrosoft" Word document.
- Blood from the Mouth: Myung-seok coughs up blood. At first, it's implied to be due to stress, but it's revealed that he has previously undiagnosed stomach cancer that has advanced to Stage 3.
- Book Ends: At the start of the first episode, Young-woo imagines a whale swimming in the air on her way to work and is baffled by the revolving doors at the entrance to the offices. When she goes to work at the end of episode 16, the whale is no longer swimming alone and she gets through the doors by herself, symbolizing her new friends and growth she gained this season.
- Both Sides Have a Point: The case in "The Blue Night of Jeju." The temple charging a toll for use of the road going through their preserve isn't really fair, even if the toll itself is pretty cheap, as the road itself is technically public, and there's no way for someone who isn't willing to pay to legally turn around and take a different route, thus putting people in a position of either committing a traffic violation, or coughing up the money. On the other hand, the temple badly needs the income, and the road does go through their private property. When the team meets the monks living there, it's obvious that they feel a bit gross about charging a toll, but don't see many other options in order to keep the place open, and the temple itself is a beautiful and important religious site. Young-woo is at a loss as to what is the "right" thing.
- Boyfriend Bluff: When Young-woo was bullied in class, Geu-ra-mi stood up for her against the bullies, but they teased them by asking if they're dating. Geu-ra-mi then declared that they are and threatened to throw her chair at the bullies to protect Young-woo.
- Break the Cutie: Young-woo was hurt so badly from all of the negative comments towards autism from an Internet video and from the words of a bigoted prosecuting attorney who looked down on autism in general that, by the end of Episode 3, it was enough to make her resign from being an attorney. Fortunately, she bounces back in Episode 4.
- Brutal Honesty: Young-woo's stock in trade. While she never intends to be cruel, she also doesn't mince her words, which can be either a blessing or a detriment in the courtroom.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Young-woo is autistic and hyper-focused on two topics: the law and whales. She uses her encyclopedic knowledge of the law and insights gained from whale biology and behavior to act as an effective litigator.
- Busman's Holiday:
- Gwang-ho is excited when Young-woo brings him dinner, something she's never done before. He's deflated when he sees that she's brought him gimbap which, as the owner of a gimbap restaurant, is what he sees all day.
- When Hairy and Geu-ra-mi tag along on the Hanbada team's trip to Jeju, Hairy spends most of his time sourcing local ingredients and cooking for everyone. When others note that he's working just like he would back at his restaurant, Hairy replies that he gets genuine pleasure taking care of friends.
- Call-Back: The first episode shows that Young-woo has a cheat sheet for human emotions, a poster in her bedroom that shows various faces expressing emotions such as anger, fear, and happiness. In episode 12, when Myung-seok gets pissed off, Young-woo notices his flared nostrils and other tell-tale signs and deduces that he's angry.
- Calling the Old Man Out: At the end of Episode 2, Kim Hwa-Yeong drops the lawsuit against her father's wishes and calls him out on how he never let her make decisions for herself, including her love life.
- Chairman of the Brawl: Geu-ra-mi threatened some bullies with her chair to defend Young-woo when they were in school together.
- Character Tics: Young-woo tends to hold her arms out to her sides and waddle like a penguin when she walks. She also always closes her eyes and counts to three before walking through doors, which she does to lessen the shock of entering a new space.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder:
- Su-yeon does what she can to help Young-woo observe social norms while working, such as by trying to guide Young-woo away from info dumping about whales or speaking bluntly, and getting her to eat other foods besides gimbap.
- Min-shik is also this for Geu-ra-mi, with less successful results.
- Community-Threatening Construction: The case of episodes 7 and 8 pertains to the construction of a highway that cuts right through the middle of Sodeok-dong.
- The Cracker: Young-woo's half-brother Choi Sang-hyeon (at the request of Kim Chan-hong) was responsible for the spear phishing attack at Raon.
- Cram School: Episode 9 centers on an elite and very involved academy that promises to set students up for success and pushes them to get stellar grades, but does so by keeping them until ten at night, not letting them have breaks or snacks, and only allowing two bathroom breaks per day. Oh, and at least some of the students are ten years old at the most. Young-woo and her colleagues are appalled by the way the children are treated.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Young-woo comes up with a plan to engage an autistic man by performing "This is Pengsoo" as the man is hyperfocused on Pengsoo.
- Crusading Lawyer: Ryu Jae-sook, the opposing counsel in Episode 12, has a track record for taking up David-vs-Goliath-type cases (and never winning any of them). That being said, she never gives up, and bears no ill will towards her opposing counsel. She also foils Min-woo's attempt to sabotage Young-woo within the firm.
- The Cutie: Young-woo is an incredibly adorable autistic young woman, which is further complimented by her wholesome appearance and innocent outlook on life.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Su-yeon is initially jealous and standoffish, especially towards Young-woo, but gradually reveals herself to be a kind, compassionate person with a protective streak—again, especially towards Young-woo.
- Did You Think I Can't Feel?: Downplayed in Episode 5 when Su-yeon and Young-woo are talking idly over lunch about office nicknames at Hanbada. When Su-yeon half-jokingly asks what hers is, Young-woo flatly says it should be 'The Spring Sunshine' because of how constantly lovely, kind, and thoughtful she is to everyone, especially her. Cue Su-yeon almost bursting into tears in the middle of the cafeteria.
- Doting Parent: Gwang-ho clearly didn't always have an easy time raising Young-woo, but he adores her and does what he can to help her navigate adult life. While he wants his daughter to be able to be independent, he also worries about her, and is always there to lend her a helping hand.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Kim Sang-hun was not murdered by his brother, he killed himself when he could no longer take the stress of medical school.
- Raon co-founder and co-CEO Bae In-cheol poisons himself with a Cyanide Pill in the courtroom. He lives and recovers well enough to oust his partner as the company's sole CEO.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Geu-ra-mi takes an immediate liking to Min-woo and leers at him openly.
- Education Mama: The series explores the dark side of this trope, showing that Korean children are often sent to after-school cram schools where they're locked in for hours and denied food and rest until late at night. And when they are let out, they rely on junk food loaded with sugar, salt, fat, and caffeine to study even more. It's ruefully noted that many kids are small for their age because they lack proper nutrition and sleep.
- Endearingly Dorky: Young-woo, for all her intellectual genius as a person (and not just as an attorney), can be rather socially awkward, has a special interest in whales and dolphins (often hyperfixating on them), and has other quirks that are befitting of her nature, but all of these qualities serve to compliment her incredibly sweet and adorable nature all the same, especially when those around her, such as Jun-ho, take the time to know her better.
- Establishing Character Moment: Jun-ho's first scene has him patiently helping Young-woo through revolving doors (which scare her) and then politely escorting her up to Hanbada's offices. He just gets nicer from there.
- Young-woo's first scene as a child first shows both her autistic behaviors, photographic memory, and special interests: (apparent) muteness, hypersensitivity to loud noises, and Eyes Always Averted. Then she, in the midst of a panic attack from one of her neighbors attacking Gwang-ho, suddenly recites a law against "inflicting bodily harm" on other people.
- Et Tu, Brute?: The Reveal of Episode 16 shows that the hacking was instigated by none other than Kim Chan-hong, Raon's (now-former) co-CEO. He ordered Tae Soo-mi's son Choi Sang-hyeon to hack into the personal data of the company's userbase to "bring back the developer's spirit" of his former co-CEO Bae In-cheol. He's promptly kicked out as sole CEO when In-cheol learns the truth behind the hacking.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Young-woo's flashes of insight are signaled by the scene shifting to soft lighting and a wind machine blowing her hair before fading to shots of whales or dolphins. Episode 13 is the sole exception (the whale belatedly arrives and without the usual effects) as she comes up with her insights right in the middle of a fight with Jun-ho.
- Failed a Spot Check: In Episode 6, Young-woo and Su-yeon were so focused on trying to find a way to reduce their client's sentence to probation, they forgot that the client had already confessed to the crime, which is already enough reason for the sentencing to be reduced. They lampshade this.
- Faint in Shock: Kim Jeong-Gu after his daughter admits she's a Buddhist and in love with her female friend.
- Family Man: Having raised a neurodivergent daughter with love and putting effort to understand her, Gwang-ho embodies this trope. At times, he understandably borders on being overprotective, but knows when to give Young-woo room to grow and spread her wings. Further cemented when is revealed that he convinced Young-woo's mother (his girlfriend back then) to not abort their unborn baby so he can raise it.
- Follow the Bouncing Ball: In episode 3 the attorneys are trying to communicate with an autistic man, Kim Jeong-hun. Jeong-hun likes a children's penguin cartoon, so, to get through to him, the lawyers sing songs from the cartoon. A graphic with the lyrics lighting up as they sing appears at the bottom of the screen.
- Foreshadowing: During an interview, Tae Soo-mi good-naturedly complains about her son's computer habits. These end up playing a role in the first-season finale.
- Forgetful Jones: The head of Sodeok-dong, who often asks one of the residents to complete his sentences.
- Freak Out:
- Kim Jeong-hun keeps saying "die" in conversations with the Hanbada attorneys as he's completely distraught by his elder brother's suicide, on top of having already seen him attempt it numerous times in the past.
- Whenever there are sudden events that result in sensory overload, Young-woo is prone to panic attacks that lead to her covering her ears and hitting herself on the head.
- Friendless Background: Both Young-woo and Geu-ra-mi had no friends in high school before they found each other because of how their personalities clash with societal expectations— Young-woo for being autistic, and Geu-ra-mi for being a troublemaker with a short fuse. In a flashback to their first meeting in said high school, the latter defended the former from a couple of bullies, and their friendship developed from there.
- "Friends" Rent Control: Park Min-shik operates a rather large establishment in Seoul (which has stratospheric rents), yet it's noted that he never has any clientele beyond Young-woo and her colleagues. He even shuts things down for several days to go on an impromptu holiday.
- Friend to All Children: Bang Gu-ppong from Episode 9 manages to be this despite being a child kidnapper, being fiercely devoted to his political cause of disrupting an education system that abuses and hurts its students. The students he temporarily kidnapped for the cause all adore him, and nothing makes him happier than seeing children smile and laugh.
- Friendship Denial: In a flashback to their high school days, Geu-ra-mi initially denies being Young-woo's friend, even calling her a loser... despite the fact that she publicly stood up for her against a bunch of bullies and even claimed they were dating to make people leave her alone. This "we're not friends" stance lasts approximately two minutes, and the two quickly become inseparable.
- Fun with Palindromes: Woo Young-woo always recites a list of palindromes she knows when introducing herself because her own name is one in Hangul (우영우).
- Gilligan Cut: In episode 14, when finding out that Jun-ho broke up with Young-woo, Min-woo suggests that Jun-ho go out and drown his sorrows. Jun-ho declines, saying "I don't feel like drinking." Cut to a very drunk Jun-ho pounding an empty shot glass on a table, as he wonders why Young-woo dumped him.
- Good Parents: He's not perfect, but Gwang-ho did a great job raising Young-woo alone, and the two share a very close bond.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Min-Woo shows this towards Young-Woo.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: The majority of cases Woo and her teammates are put on are extremely murky as to who's right or wrong, and don't have a clear cut "good" or "bad" side, as is true for real life.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Seung-jun can be ticked off by just about anything, even more so if Young-woo is around.
- Hates Being Touched: Young-woo dislikes physical contact, which makes it difficult for her as Geu-ra-mi and Su-yeon are prone to cuddling. It's Justified in her case because she's autistic, and affective touch isn't processed the same way in autistics as it is in neurotypical people. For many autistic people, touch gets processed by the discriminatory touch system note (reference here).
- Honor Before Reason:
- Gwang-ho thought he was being honorable when he promised Tae Soo-mi that he'd raise their child alone and give up becoming a lawyer so that she could live her own life with her reputation intact. He realizes too late that this decision only caused himself lots of struggle and closed off opportunities for Young-woo in the long run.
- In a more comedic example, in episode 13 a client pays for the very expensive services of Hanbada Law Firm, because he's mad about being charged a $3 tourist fee.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Su-yeon fakes a sort-of emergency call to get out of her blind date with Min-shik and his Hurricane of Puns.
- Impairment Shot: Some shots from Young-woo's point of view depict how she experiences sensory overload, with things getting blurry and interrupted by white flashes.
- Innocently Insensitive: After Myung-seok's cancer diagnosis is made public, Young-woo tries to be helpful by reciting lists of symptoms and survival statistics. However, this makes everyone uncomfortable and horrifies Myung-seok's mother.
- Insistent Terminology: When Young-woo works part-time as a server at her father's restaurant, she insists on calling crab gimbap "crab stick gimbap" because it features imitation crab meat rather than actual crab.
- Iris Out: Happens in the middle of Episode 10 after Jun-ho tells Young-woo that "Holding Hands Can Wait".
- It Runs in the Family:
- Tae Soo-mi, Young-woo's birth mother, and Choi Sang-hyeon, Young-woo's half-brother, both show signs of being autistic, though not in the same fashion as Young-woo.
- Both of Young-woo's parents excelled in law school, and her mother Soo-mi now runs her own firm.
- I Warned You: In the last trial of Season 1, Woo Young-Woo keeps interrupting Attorney Jang about several minor errors in his case, like rounded statistics and mispronunciation. The judge picks up on each and every one of the same points Woo Young-Woo did, much to Jang's chagrin and her co-workers' delight.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Bang Gu-ppong commits assault and kidnapping in pursuit of his goals but he's not wrong in saying that Korea's cram-school industry is harming the children it purports to help.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Myung-seok is stand-offish at first toward Young-woo, as he doesn't want the trouble of dealing with someone who's neurodivergent. However, he starts warming up to Young-woo and even goes so far as give up lucrative billables if it means dropping her from cases. In Episode 6, he even takes responsibility for costing the firm a major client when Young-woo makes one of its executives out himself as a bigot in the courtroom.
- Karma Houdini: Min-woo tries to sabotage Hanbada and jump ship to Taesan. After one bungled attempt, however, he decides not to try anymore and ends the series with none of his colleagues knowing what he did.
- The Kindnapper: Bang Gu-ppong, the client in Episode 9, kidnapped a busload of children on their way to school... specifically, an extremely harsh Cram School whose methods cross into outright abuse, that leaves the kids with no time to play, socialize, or have any kind of fun. He gave everyone an opportunity to get off the bus if they didn't want to go with him, and when everyone chose to stay, took them all to a mountain area to spend the day playing games, singing, and enjoying the fresh air. Young-woo notes that while the parents are justifiably horrified by what happened (and what could've happened), the kids view the kidnapping as a very fond memory. How many kidnappers get all their "victims" showing up to support him at the trial?
- The Last DJ: Young-woo compares opposing counsel Ryu Jae-sook to a Yangtze river dolphin due to her determination and idealism when it comes to representing the everyman in cases against giant corporations (which comrpises Hanbada's usual clientele).
- Literal-Minded: In Episode 2, Su-yeon tells Young-woo that the former's "expecting", but Young-woo asks if she meant that she was "waiting for something to happen". Su-yeon explains that the backstory she concocted for her undercover investigation with Jun-ho is that they slept together, which was why she was "expecting", as in "expecting a baby".
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- In Episode 5, Min-woo deliberately refuses to convey Young-woo any information to decrease her chances of making it through another year in the firm, forcing her and Jun-ho to explore alternate avenues.
- The head of Sodeok-dong. It turns out that Park Yoo-jin, who works in the provincial office, never made any serious attempt to get Sodeok-dong's hackberry tree a natural monument due to him originally being in favor of an earlier subway project.
- Manipulative Bitch: Han Seon-young's plan to make Hanbada the #1 law firm in South Korea and surpass Taesan involved hiring a reporter to dig up dirt on the personal life of Taesan's CEO, Tae Soo-mi, and hiring her illegitimate daughter to her company in order to use her as a pawn against her.
- Married to the Job: The reason Ji-su divorced Myung-seok. Myung-seok was so dedicated to his work to the point that flashbacks show him working during their honeymoon. After going under the knife related to his stomach cancer, Ji-su asked him whether he would resign from Hanbada. He stays undecided on the matter by the end of the finale.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Hwa-young, the client in Episode 2, turns out to be a Lipstick Lesbian who has been secretly dating her "school friend" for quite a while. Her girlfriend is a tall, slim, short-haired young woman who wears a masculine suit, and could be mistaken for a Pretty Boy at a distance.
- Mean Boss: Seung-jun has a Hair-Trigger Temper when it comes to Young-woo, and it leads to her getting kicked out of the online retailer Raon's case against the Korea Communications Commission. They're also far from competent, being at a loss for words during his final arguments as Raon's counsel and had to be bailed out by Su-yeon and Min-woo.
- Mickey Mousing: In lighter moments, the soundtrack punctuates the action to enhance the humor.
- Missed Him by That Much: Young-woo and Tae Soo-mi just barely avoid crossing paths at the mall at the end of Episode 6. Especially poignant as Soo-mi is her mother.
- Missing Mom: Young-woo has no memory of her mother as Tae Soo-mi gave her up at birth. She notes that a mother whale will die before abandoning an injured calf and wonders if she'd have a mother if she'd been born a whale.
- Nepotism: An undercurrent to the series is how personal connections both help and hurt.
- Young-woo was hired because, unbeknownst to her, her father and her boss were classmates in law school (although actually it was because her boss knew of her relationship with her rival, and was hoping to use that against her). When this becomes public, it causes resentment within the firm and comes close to breaking Young-woo's relationship with her father. When Tae Soo-mi offers Young-woo a job at Taesan while not knowing their familial connection, Young-woo declines as she would face other accusations of nepotism if it came out that they are mother and daughter.
- Han Seon-young and Tae Soo-mi are powerful women in a male-dominated field but it's acknowledged that they probably wouldn't have achieved that level of success if they hadn't inherited their firms from their fathers.
- Having seen Young-woo struggle to get hired, Gwang-ho confesses that he regrets not pursuing a legal career because if he did, he could have hired Young-woo himself and left a firm for her to inherit.
- Episode 6 touches on this quite a few times:
- Subverted in the first hearing, where the judge, Su-yeon, and the prosecutor all discuss their connections with the first. That discussion ends up having no relevance to the plot, at least until Episode 12.
- Played straight much later on where Su-yeon uses her connections as the daughter of a judge to enter the judge's chambers and try to plead their case. It works.
- In Episode 12, Ryu Jae-sook weaponizes this against a male judge (the same one from Episode 6) when they learn they're from the same clan. The judge patronizingly asks for her father's generation name, thinking it'll give him the opportunity to talk down to her. However, she reveals that while she's younger than the judge, she's technically a generation above him, making her a distantly related aunt and forcing him to show her due deference so as not to be seen as a hypocrite by everyone else in the room.
- The two-part finale is driven by a tangled web of people attempting to leverage their personal connections against one another. In the end, it takes Young-woo invoking her blood relationship with Tae Soo-mi and Choi Sang-hyeon to get the case turned in Hanbada's favor.
- The Nicknamer: The head of Sodeok-dong loves to give nicknames to his neighbors by bestowing famous monikers on them based on their attributes, such as "Son Heung-min" on the town's best soccer player. Curiously enough, the town's "Eugene Park" is really named Park Yoo-jin.
- Nonconformist Dyed Hair: The rebellious Geu-ra-mi has several colored streaks in her hair, which she started dyeing since high school.
- Not So Above It All:
- Myung-seok carries himself with dignity but will launch into song-and-dance and engage in juvenile humor if a case calls for it.
- Despite initially not wanting to, Myung-seok and Min-woo do give themselves childish Potty Humor nicknames for the kids in Episode 9 to call them, seeing how much it makes the kids laugh. Surprisingly, Min-woo is the one who caves first.
- Min-woo looks exasperated at Gue-ra-mi's childishness when she barges into the room where he's watching the news and changes channels to watch SpongeBob SquarePants. However, after several seconds of watching the cartoon, he lets out a goofy giggle himself.
- Once per Episode: Every episode has a scene where Woo-young introduces herself to someone with her list of palindromes (much to the other person's befuddlement), and a scene where Woo-young has a "Eureka!" Moment visualized by wind blowing through her hair and a whale emerging from the ocean.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Geu-ra-mi is called such because combining it with her family name makes "Dong Geu-ra-mi", which means "circle" in Korean. It's not until the last few episodes that it's revealed that her real name is Dong Geu-ran...which means "round" in Korean.
- On the Next: Each episode has a preview at the end, providing a basic outline of what the upcoming episodes plot will be about.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Because Su-yeon Can't Spit It Out, Min-woo deduces that the former likes the latter as they keep pointing out how Min-woo hasn't been abrasive throughout the entire Jeju trip.
- Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: Towards the end of Episode 11, Gwang-ho returns from getting groceries just in time to see Young-woo kissing Jun-ho outside the house. He interrogates Young-woo about her relationship in the next episode.
- Pet the Dog: At the end of the finale, Han Seon-young mutters that she went easy on Tae Soo-mi by only derailing her rival's ambitions rather than completely destroying her reputation.
- Picky Eater: Young-woo doesn't like unfamiliar foods so she will only eat gimbap, as the rolls let her see exactly what's inside. When she realizes that her father is using a different brand of ham in his gimbap restaurant, she carefully picks out each piece and arranges them in an "X" on her plate to express her displeasure.
- Pinocchio Nose: When Young-woo says that she has difficulty reading social cues and can't tell when people are lying, Jun-ho explains that she can keep an eye out for certain physical tells such as people's noses becoming flushed because blood rushes in when they lie. This ends up being played for comedy as one of the people she questions is comically bad at lying and can't help but draw attention to each of his tells, including his nose.
- Potty Emergency: On the way to investigate a client's case, Su-yeon experiences a case of indigestion so severe that Young-woo has to bring her a change of clothes.
- Professional Butt-Kisser:
- Seung-jun appears to be much more competent at sucking up to clients and CEO Han Seon-yeong than in the courtroom.
- Downplayed with Min-woo, who says yes to what Seung-jun asks them to do, but he explains to Su-yeon that they have to do it because any attempt of theirs to freewheel in the case would be viewed more harshly than when Young-woo does it.
- Pungeon Master: Min-shik loves to drop food-related puns. Cue a blind date with Su-yeon, and it's made clear soon enough that she wasn't having any of it.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Two of them in Episode 5.
- Geumgang ATM's CEO fights hard to win his case against Ilhwa ATM but spent all his energy and resources winning one battle while his opponent focused on winning the bigger war. Geumgang's CEO will win the case, as Ilhwa clearly perjured themselves and filed a false claim for the patent—but the legal battle went on so long that Ilhwa was able to snatch up contracts with all the banks, so their ATMs will be the ones in use across the country, and Geumgang is still left with no business at all.
- Young-woo wins the case, but in doing so, compromises her integrity, because she had a sense her clients were lying but didn't press the issue and even gave one of them some trial coaching, so his lies would be less obvious. Legally, everything she did was totally above-board, but she feels like crud afterwards.
- Questionable Consent: In the case of episode 10, Yang Jeong-il is accused of raping Shin Hye-yeong, an intellectually disabled woman, and the attorneys' goal is to prove consent. The reveal that Jeong-il had a similar history with another woman almost gets Young-woo to resign, but Hye-yeong really doesn't want him to go to jail. The jury's verdict is almost split in half, and the judge effectively declares him guilty.
- Secret Handshake: Between Geu-ra-mi and Young-woo. Not exactly a handshake per se but still a hammy greeting with several steps and a catchphrase. You can see it here.
- Self-Imposed Exile: The owner of Haengbok Noodles, a restaurant Myung-seok wanted to eat at, had his business and family legacy undercut by an unscrupulous competitor. Depressed and embarrassed, he became the cook at a Buddhist monastery because it gave him anonymity. He ends up crossing paths with the Hanbada team and starting down the path to reopening the restaurant with their help.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: In Episode 2, Jun-ho and Young-woo have to pretend to be an engaged couple in a bridal shop to investigate, and Young-woo tries on a wedding dress. Jun-ho is transfixed by the normally mousy and plainly dressed Young-woo's transformation into an elegant fairytale bride, helped both by the stylish, revealing gown, and the stylists doing an excellent job with her. Young-woo, meanwhile, doesn't notice his Crush Blush and just wants to get back in her own clothes as soon as possible; the dress has a lot of tags attached, which irritate the hell out of her.
- Shipper on Deck: Geu-ra-mi immediately sees that Jun-ho has feelings for Young-woo and tells him of a detour they can take to see a beautiful sunset. She also works to help Young-woo understand that she might have romantic feelings.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: While she's not interested in getting married yet, Su-yeon has no interest in one night stands and is instead hoping to find a Nice Guy she can have a steady relationship with. Young-woo fixes her up with Min-sik, who is indeed a very sweet man, but he's so nervous he ends up speaking exclusively in food-related puns, which leads to Su-yeon bailing on him.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Myung-seok has one in the form of Jang Seung-jun, who runs another team at Hanbada and delights in any opportunity to lord over Myung-seok.
- Spanner in the Works: Min-woo tries to sabotage Young-woo by sending privileged information to Ryu Jae-sook under Young-woo's name. However, she turns out to be too ethical for the plan to work.
- Support Your Parents: This turns out to be the motivation behind Min-woo's ruthlessness in his attempts to secure himself a permanent contract from his internship. As he explains to Su-yeon during their trip to Jeju his family is poor, and his father is sick. As such he feels the responsibility to get a good paid job and be able to support them.
- The Social Darwinist: Min-woo is a Straw Meritocrat who seeks to show that he's superior to other lawyers. This leads to him using underhanded tactics like withholding information from others, posting negative comments online, and advocating those lawyers or clients who commit any misdeeds be punished accordingly. This grates on Myung-seok, his supervisor, who doesn't believe in operating in such a fashion. Min-woo eventually agrees to sabotage Hanbada from the inside in exchange for a position at Taesan, a larger firm.
- Staggered Zoom: Jun-ho is working in the office bullpen when one of his co-workers gets his attention and gestures off towards the left. That is followed by a staggered zoom onto Young-woo, off to the left, as she stares at Jun-ho through the blinds of her office. Jun-ho's co-worker is creeped out.
- Stern Old Judge: The judge in Raon's case against the KCC was having none of In-cheol and Seung-jun's attempt to swing the case in their favor by exploiting their university affiliations.
- Suicide is Shameful: The defendant's parents in episode 3 are reluctant to accept that their older son attempted suicide because they want to protect his honor.
- Suicide, Not Murder: The case in Episode 3. Kim Sang-hun killed himself, and the only reason his body had signs of trauma was that because his autistic younger brother tried to save him.
- Surprise Car Crash: The asshole client in episode 11 gets behind the wheel of his new luxury sports car and pursues his wife, who is on foot. He's screaming at her to give him a divorce, when a semi-truck comes barreling into the intersection and plows right into him. Consequently, the wife inherits the whole $1.4 million that Hanbada just won for her husband.
- Taken Off the Case: Happens to Young-woo twice.
- The client in Episode 3 takes her off the case as he felt that the prosecution focusing on her neurodivergence would tank their chances on obtaining a favorable ruling.
- Seung-jun takes her off the Raon vs. KCC case in Episode 15 after losing his temper over her reciting the relevant law.
- Teen Genius: Tae Soo-mi's son, Choi Sang-hyeon, is highly skilled with Rubik's cubes, hacking and cybersecurity.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Upon receiving a juicy piece of evidence, Han Seon-young decides to use that against Tae Soo-mi and quashes a story revealing Young-woo and Tae Soo-mi's familial connection (which she leaked in the first place) to save Young-woo from being embarrassed and harassed in the press and public.
- Token Evil Teammate: Min-woo is the sole holdout from being won over by Young-woo, treating her with hostility and resorting to outright dirty tactics to try and disrupt her career. He gradually gets his head out of his ass.
- Took a Level in Kindness:
- While he's already a Benevolent Boss, Myung-seok becomes even nicer during the Jeju trip, offering to become counsel to the owner of his favorite noodle shop to revive it, and to the Hwangjisa temple to have the government further support them to make up for the loss in revenues as a result of the court ruling against the temple.
- Min-woo also starts to become nicer after the Jeju trip.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Gimbap for Young-woo, and she won't eat anything else but it. Even then, she wants it prepared with the exact same ingredients every time she orders it.
- The Unapologetic: Bang Gu-ppong freely admits to having kidnapped a group of schoolchildren, and proudly says he's not sorry and he will do it again the first chance he gets. While he's The Kindnapper, and Young-woo actually comes to agree with his ideology of children's liberation (if not his methods), she's more than a little exasperated by him admitting this in court.
- Under New Management: With Myung-seok out due to his stomach cancer, Seung-jun replaces them, and this creates tensions between Seung-jun and the rookie attorneys.
- Unfortunate Names: Invoked by Bang Gu-ppong Translation , who deliberately legally changed his name to just that to make children laugh.
- Unishment: After Young-woo resigns abruptly and asks for her job back, Myung-seok says that she can return to the firm but that she won't be able to take any time off as a consequence of leaving her colleagues in the lurch. She replies that she never had any personal days to begin with.note
- Vacation Episode: Episodes 13 and 14 see the gang go to Jeju Island after they're hired to bring a lawsuit. It's a real case but it's also sort of a boondoggle and all the lawyers are excited to go to a vacation spot.
- Verbal Tic: Young-woo exhibits echolalia, which is where someone reflexively repeats things other people say. She also ends her sentences with soft consonants where Koreans would normally use hard consonants.
- Voiceover Letter: A few times in Episode 4, where Geumgang's CEO unsuccessfully tries to convince Young-woo to drop the case against them.
- Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization: All of Young-woo's clothes are slightly too big, which makes her appear more childlike and innocent.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: Episode 2 focuses on Kim Jeong-Gu suing a hotel for letting his daughter's wedding dress slip off during her wedding for a billion won. Excessive, but she was wearing no undergarment at the time and her Buddha tatoo was exposed, which greatly offended her new husband's devout, Christian grandfather.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Bang Gu-ppong is the self-appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Children's Liberation Army and wishes to see the end of Korea's cram-school culture which places enormous physical and mental stress on children. He ends up committing assault and kidnap in pursuit of his goals — and almost destroys his mother's business in the process — but his objectives are noble, in principle.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?:
- Geu-ra-mi's actual name is Dong Geu-ran, which can mean "round" in Korean. Her nickname, meanwhile, means "circle".
- The late patriarch of the Dong family named his sons Dong-il, Dong-yi, and Dong-sam. In Korean, il, yi, and sam mean one, two, and three. Since the three share a generation name, it means their father simply named them First, Second, and Third.Explanation
- Workaholic: Myung-seok, to the point that it outright destroyed his marriage with Ji-su.
- Yes-Man: Seung-jun is this to Han Seon-young, never disagreeing publicly with her and sycophantically praising her when she explains her choices and how they could work against Tae Soo-mi.
- You Leave Him Alone!: This is how Geu-ra-mi became Young-woo's best friend. She saw the other kids in their class tormenting Young-woo, and, disgusted at the bullying, slapped one of the ringleaders senseless and told her to back off. When a boy mockingly asked her if she was Young-woo's girlfriend, she said yes, she was, so anyone who wanted to mess with Young-woo would have to go through her.
