SBS’s ‘신이랑 법률사무소’: Will the Ghost-Seeing Lawyer Win His First Case?

Daniel Kim 2026.03.14 Views

Photo = Studio S, Mongjakso

[Sports Today reporter Kim Tae-hyung] Yoo Yeon-seok made a memorable first impression, delivering spellbinding entertainment from an opening that literally sees ghosts to a courtroom finale driven by possession.

SBS’s new Friday–Saturday series, Shin I-rang Law Office, which premiered on March 13, hooked viewers with a distinctive blend of courtroom drama and supernatural elements: a wrongful death, a rookie’s first trial, and a possession twist. Episode 1 drew a nationwide average of 6.3% and a peak minute of 6.6%, topping its time slot, according to Nielsen Korea. The key 20–49 demo averaged 2.0% and peaked at 2.5%, underscoring that SBS’s fresh take on legal drama resonated with younger viewers as well.

Yoo Yeon-seok poured himself into the role, offering a range of expressions that kept the audience riveted. He plays Shin I-rang as a warm-hearted defender who can’t ignore a street vegetable seller, a charmingly rattled man when confronted by the supernatural, and a lawyer who channels the dead’s injustice into fierce advocacy. He shifts effortlessly between genuine warmth and sly comedy, elevating the series’ entertainment value.

Esom, as elite attorney Han Na-hyun, brought icy precision to the courtroom, tightening the drama with razor-sharp arguments. Kim Kyung-nam, as Yang Do-gyeong, head of law firm Taebaek, quietly builds a villainous arc behind the scenes. Supporting turns from Kim Mi-kyung, Son Yeo-eun and Jeon Seok-ho — plus a special-appearance ghost played by Heo Sung-tae — add grounded humor and texture. Together, they create an ensemble with blockbuster chemistry.

The episode opens on Shin I-rang at the defense table in a sleek black suit and a tie embroidered with an incongruous talisman pattern, waving a ceremonial bell fan. Dead people don’t speak, but Shin can see and hear them. He represents those who lack the power or means to seek justice, listens to their frantic pleas and makes sure their stories get heard.

Only a year earlier, Shin was an ordinary law-firm hopeful whose prospects were repeatedly derailed by a stigma tied to his prosecutor father’s past. After being coldly dismissed by Han Na-hyun during a Taebaek Law Firm interview, Shin vows revenge and opens his own small practice under his name.

With limited funds, he can only afford a shabby office: Room 501 in the Okcheon Building. Blinded by a view of the courthouse, he signs the lease. In a desk drawer he finds a mysterious incense stick; after lighting it he blacks out and awakens to a floating male ghost (played by Heo Sung-tae). The office turns out to have been a shaman’s house where someone died during a ritual. Terrified, Shin hides under his desk and even prays in a church, but the ghost follows him, insists it has no memory, and — after catching a whiff of grilled pork — ends up possessing him.

Matteo (Jung Seung-gil), who says he was once a shaman but later became a priest, offers a stranger explanation: if someone becomes excited by things a ghost likes or dislikes, they can be vulnerable to possession and might act out without remembering it later. Matteo suggests that learning a ghost’s name and birth date can restore its memories. Reviewing CCTV from the shaman’s house, they identify the ghost as Lee Kang-pung — the husband of Kim Min-ju (Kim Si-eun).

Lee’s memories flood back: he was an ordinary father who enjoyed life with his wife and daughter, and he died during surgery, apparently from medical negligence. Shin hesitates — ghost cases don’t pay — but he cannot turn away Kim Min-ju, who tearfully says her daughter has shut herself off from the world. Having felt the pain of an unheard wrongful death within his own family, Shin steps in. Just as Kim Min-ju is about to sign away a settlement for next to nothing, Shin exposes a backroom deal involving her lawyer, Byun Seung-joon (Lee Kang-wook), flips the case, and files suit against the hospital and the physician.

Shin’s first courtroom opponent is Han Na-hyun, the very lawyer who once insulted him. She dredges up Lee Kang-pung’s past ties to organized crime and even floats unfounded claims that he abused his daughter, showing she will use any tactic to win. As the attacks escalate, Lee Kang-pung’s rage surges and he possesses Shin again. Flushed and spouting rough dialect and profanity, Shin charges forward; he only snaps out of it when he trips over Han’s foot, falls, and the water douses him back to himself.

The episode ends on a bittersweet note — Shin, sprawled in the middle of the courtroom, choking up as he confesses, “I really hate being a lawyer who can see ghosts.” It’s a poignant, comic moment that foreshadows the hard road ahead. Can Shin clear Lee Kang-pung’s name and score his first legal victory?

Episode 2 of SBS’s Shin I-rang Law Office airs March 14 at 9:50 p.m.