Jipyong’s Yagurteu: People Brought Closer Through Baseball [After-Hours Legal Professionals 2]

[Financial News] It feels more natural to greet someone with “Which team are you a fan of?” than “Which department are you in?”
At Yagurteu, Jipyong law firm’s baseball-watching club, the team someone supports becomes a topic of conversation before their rank or department. Lawyers, professional advisers and staff whose work varies come together around their shared interest in baseball.
At large law firms, specialists in various fields work within one organization. But when their areas of work differ, they may have few opportunities to meet even though they work for the same company. Jipyong is creating opportunities for its members to meet naturally outside work through in-house clubs.
Jipyong currently has six active in-house clubs. They include Dagamdasa (Many Feelings, Many Thoughts), a club for enjoying cultural activities such as films, theater, performances and exhibitions; Yagurteu, a baseball-watching club; Jihwaja, a flower-arranging club; the Jipyong Hiking Club; the Jipyong Tennis Club; and Jichuk, a soccer club.
Yagurteu currently has 43 members. Lawyers make up about 40% of the membership, while professional advisers, staff and others account for about 60%. Members’ length of service varies, from a managing partner who was among Jipyong’s founding members to new employees who joined this year.
The name Yagurteu carries the meaning “Refresh Together through baseball.” The club was formed in 2013 to give lawyers and staff who love baseball, even if they support different teams, a chance to watch games together and naturally socialize.
Park Ah-reum, a partner in Jipyong’s IP & IT Group who has served as Yagurteu’s secretary for the second consecutive year since last year, has been a baseball fan for more than 15 years, following the KBO (Korea Baseball Organization) League since her university days. After joining Jipyong as an experienced attorney, she learned there was an in-house baseball club and signed up right away. “I guess I was drawn to it as if by fate. Now I’m the club’s secretary,” Park recalled.
Yagurteu’s main activity is attending regular-season KBO League games in person. Members choose one game each quarter to watch together. Since they meet after work, they mostly go to stadiums that are easy to reach, such as Jamsil and Gocheok. When international tournaments are held, they also gather at sports pubs with big screens to cheer on South Korea’s national team.
As the KBO League has grown more popular recently, securing tickets has become the biggest hurdle to attending games as a group. The club has to survey members in advance and choose games for which ticket competition is relatively less intense.
The fact that members support different teams has become part of Yagurteu’s unique appeal. Seo Yeong-dong, a team leader in Jipyong’s Litigation Team 2 who served as Yagurteu’s president for two years, from 2024 through last year, is a die-hard Lotte Giants fan. Seo explained that while fans of “El-Lot-Gi” (LG, Lotte and KIA) used to cheer each other on, a so-called “bird alliance” has recently formed between Hanwha and Lotte.
The results of games between the Kia Tigers and Lotte also change the atmosphere at the office the next day for Park, a Kia Tigers fan, and Seo. The day after KIA beats Lotte, Park runs into Seo in the elevator and is the first to ask, “Did you watch yesterday’s game?” By contrast, when Lotte beats KIA, Park goes quiet and Seo is the one to bring up the game from the previous day.
“Maybe it’s better to tease us,” Park said with a laugh. “Baseball fans feel even sadder when people try to console them.” In this way, conversations that start at the ballpark lead to new relationships at the office.
Park said that she mainly handles domestic litigation and did not often work with the International Group, but becoming friends with foreign attorneys through Yagurteu helped her better understand the group’s work.
Seo explained that in the past, he would only exchange brief greetings in the elevator with colleagues he had little work-related contact with, but conversations came more naturally after he joined Yagurteu. Conversations that began with baseball turned to everyday topics and became a way for members to get to know one another.
The closeness built through the club also affects work. Seo stressed, “We often communicate about work by email, but with colleagues I’ve gotten to know through club activities, I can now call them or meet them in person to talk more comfortably.”
Park said that because she often works with the litigation team, she has also become more comfortable making work requests to staff she has gotten to know through the club. Sometimes she naturally starts a work conversation by bringing up how the other person’s favorite team is doing.
One moment that stands out in Park’s memory is attending a game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium last June. More than 20 people took part, including members of Jipyong’s patent law firm. Park had arrived at the stadium first and was waiting for the others when she saw her colleagues, dressed in suits, walking toward the stadium in small groups.
Park recalled, “It seemed to capture our club’s identity: ‘Heading to the ballpark after work.’ It was a moment I wanted to hold on to.” Jipyong’s in-house clubs, including Yagurteu, offer members another way to get to know one another beyond their work relationships. People who might rarely meet despite working at the same company build connections by sharing a hobby, and those relationships in turn lead to more communication at work.
“Meeting people at work who share the same hobby has made the time I spend at the company a little more comfortable, and I think my affection for Jipyong and its people has grown, too,” Park said. Seo said, “The biggest benefit I’ve found in Yagurteu is that it has broadened the ways I can communicate with my colleagues.”
Yagurteu plans to expand its activities beyond Seoul. Until now, members have mostly attended games at stadiums in Seoul, taking travel time into account. The club is also considering trips with members to stadiums across the country to watch games and visit local attractions and popular restaurants.
They support different teams, have different ranks and do different jobs. But when they gather at the ballpark after work, they are all simply people who love baseball. In this way, Jipyong’s Yagurteu is building new relationships within the company through baseball.
[email protected] Yoo Seon-jun Reporter