Attorney Woo's intelligence and photographic memory help her to become an excellent lawyer, as she is able to recall laws and everything she reads, sees, or hears perfectly.

But as the series progresses, many of the people she meets, such as her supervising lawyer, Jung Myung-seok, her law school classmate and peer, Choi Su-yeon, and legal support staffer Lee Jun-ho adjust to her as she learns her craft as a rookie attorney.

Her tendency to analogize situations she faces in her professional and private life with the lives and characteristics of whales and dolphins often surprises and confounds the people who surround her.

Kim Jeong-hoon, a young severely autistic man, is discovered apparently attacking his older brother, a brilliant medical student who dies intoxicated with mysteriously broken ribs.

"Wild card" Young-woo leads the case alongside her competitive colleague, "tactician" Kwon Min-woo, who openly sabotages her.

Young-woo shows Min-woo a letter from the head of Geumgang begging her to pursue the truth as an honorable attorney, but he reminds her that their duty is to win for their client.

Five years earlier, she was arrested after demanding money from a badly beaten debtor but fled to care for her young daughter and has now come forward to accept punishment.

Arguing that the victim's wounds were caused by her abusive husband, Young-woo questions the doctor who examined her, who admits his bias against defectors.

Young-woo argues that under North Korean law, the defendant would be guilty of a lesser crime, but Hyang-sim confesses that she intended to get the money at any cost.

Young-woo defends an eccentric young man who has adopted the humorous name "Bang Gu-ppong" (which can be translated as "fart") and is charged with kidnapping a busload of children who were supposed to attend his mother's hagwon.

Jun-ho and Young-woo learn the children are forced to study all day and night, prompting Gu-ppong to try to free them of the intense pressure from parents and schools.

Abandoning her team's plan to deem Gu-ppong mentally unfit, Young-woo helps him declare his philosophy of play as a "political offender".

After meeting Young-woo without her overprotective mother, Hye-yeong testifies that the relationship was consensual, but the prosecution asserts that the sexual encounter drove her to self-harm.

Young-woo and Jun-ho try to warn Soo-ji without violating attorney-client privilege, but her abusive husband is killed in a car accident, and she inherits his prize money.

Soo-yeon's new boyfriend is revealed to be a con artist preying on women with elite jobs, and Young-woo finds herself thinking about Jun-ho as often as she does about whales.

Jae-sook submits evidence that the company's human resources manager was directly ordered to force female employees to resign; nevertheless, the judge dismisses the plaintiffs' claims of discrimination.

The Hanbada team soon head to Jeju Island, along with Dong Geu-ra-mi and Kim Min-sik, after Young-woo accepts a case involving her landlady's father, who was charged an admission fee for being in the area of a local heritage site there, a temple called Hwangjisa, even though he had no intention to visit.

The Hanbada team decides to find the owner of Haengbok Noodles at Young-woo's suggestion but are unable to make meaningful progress.

[40] On August 17, 2022, president Lee Sang-baek of AStory, the production company for Extraordinary Attorney Woo, confirmed that the drama would be renewed for a second season, which was expected to premiere in 2024.

[52] The drama and Park Eun-bin's performance garnered acclaim from critics for creating awareness about an array of contemporary socio-legal issues affecting Korean society and many other countries.

[54] Haley Moss, a neurodiversity expert, found Eun-bin's character to be endearing and relatable while also lauding the show as groundbreaking in Korea, where the perception of autism and available services are very different than in the United States.

[56] In his review for NME, Carmen Chin wrote, "the show spurs an overarching storyline to allow for the characterisation of Young-woo's adaptability to each episodic case and client of various circumstances to take centre stage.

[57] Writing for The Korea Times, David A. Tizzard praised the show for raising awareness about issues affecting Korean society and mental health.

[59] The representation of the titular character in popular culture sparked a debate around autism in South Korea and internationally, with some applauding it and others deeming it unrealistic.

[60] Karla Miller, writing for The Washington Post, said the show does many things right to bring the audience into Young-woo's corner: "Woo is sweet, likable and ultimately relatable.

[61] In contrast, Lee Dong Ju, the mother of an autistic child, told a local broadcaster that the show is a pure fantasy, as for many on the spectrum, Young-woo's success would be equivalent to a kid winning an Olympic medal for cycling without being able to walk yet.

[62] Writer Tammy Kim made a dig at the drama's portrayal of feminism, saying it set unrealistic expectations in a professional sphere replete with gender inequalities.

[64] Due to its global success, including becoming the sixth most-viewed non-English drama of all time on Netflix, the series is considered one of the K-dramas spreading the so-called Korean wave internationally.

[66] The 500-year-old hackberry tree featured in the drama was designated a natural monument by the Cultural Heritage Administration after reportedly receiving a surge in daily visitors.