section_path: Early life/Civil rights attorney
section_name: Civil rights attorney
paragraph_text: Civil rights attorney
  
  Based on his entrance examination scores, Lee was accepted into Chung-Ang University 's College of Law on a scholarship. In 1986, upon graduating from college, he passed the bar exam and entered the Judicial Research and Training Institute for two years in order to join the bar. Lee opposed the authoritarian regime of Chun Doo-hwan. Lee originally intended to become a judge or prosecutor for the prestige and pay, but he was inspired by a lecture from Roh Moo-hyun to become a human rights and labour lawyer, like Roh and Moon Jae-in. He set up his practice in Seongnam.
  
  After opening his own lawyer's office, Lee organized for labour and human rights with the lawyers' organization Minbyun, working with the heads of labour counselling centers in Incheon and Gwangju. In 1995, he started a civic movement as a founding member of the 'Seongnam Citizens' Association'. He gained fame as a lawyer and social activist in relation to the "Park View" preferential sale case, where an investigation suggested corruption in the awarding of building permits and preferential sales of property in Bundang to government officials.
  
  In the early 2000s, two general hospitals in Seongnam closed, and Lee started a movement to build a new municipal hospital. The city council, which was then controlled by the Grand National Party, rejected the residents' initiative ordinance in just 47 seconds. Lee's group protested the council, and Lee was wanted for obstructing official duties of a public official. Afterwards, he realized that he could not change society through social movements, and he decided to enter politics.