A salient feature of legal aid in South Korea is the presence of the state-subsidized legal aid institution, the Korea Legal Aid Corporation. It is large in comparison to private sector involvement in access to justice, although there are concerns that state-subsidized legal aid still falls short of providing sufficient legal services to the public. Private lawyer involvement in access to justice began with the tradition of human rights lawyers during the democracy movement in the 1970s and 80s, and grew into the current practice of public interest lawyering. While the number of public interest lawyers is not big enough, they have made significant progress in advancing public interest agendas. The more recent voluntary pro bono initiatives led by major law firms arose in part to address increasing scrutiny from civil society, and they have also been the site of considerable growth. A different kind of scrutiny led South Korea to adopt a mandatory pro bono requirement by the Attorney-at-Law Act of 2000. Even though the mandatory requirement scheme has been criticized for its vague scope of public interest activities and lack of penalties for non-compliance, the requirement has positively impacted law firm pro bono and access to justice.