Nowadays it's so crazy to think that a big corp. doesn't have a legal team. Just goes to s...

But the current timeline is probaly in the 90s or 2k so they might haven't had the legal team

Exactly. At that time they didn't need one cause nothing happened yet. But a legal team is one of those "better to have one early than not have it late"
I can't imagine something like disney not having a legal team now

No it’s still weird. The conglomerates become conglomerates precisely because they move with foresight. You need a legal team for basic things like employment contracts and subcontracting for materials or labour and such. It’s not possible for them to be a firmly established company and not have a legal team hell even the company itself needs to be registered to be able to operate and lawyers are supposed to handle that too.

It matches with the story. Dongju fell because they had no legal team to protect them. They did not have the foresight and thus stopped being a conglomerate

The fell because they had an insider at a high position leaking info. Added to that they couldn’t file charges because of how that very person worded things in contracts which made things worse. Also the grandfather is moving with foresight. His sons are the incompetent ones here. But the grandfather isn’t a lawyer so he wouldn’t be able to nitpick contract clauses like our mc. A person like grandpa not employing legal counsel is a plot hole.
But

So like I said it’s still weird. A company that size would have a multitude of employees and a lot of contracts with other companies. If they don’t have at least a legal representative if not a whole team they’re bound to drown sooner or later. It’s basic knowledge to have at least 1 legal counsel for giant corporations regardless of the timeline here.

I agree. Like you said, it's basic knowledge, and they're bound to drown without it; hence, they did. Even if the insider leaked info, they would have a better chance of surviving, if not preventing the fall altogether, had there been a legal team.

But i don't think it's a plot hole. Yes, it's weird, but it also makes sense given their situation. Grandpa built the company from the ground up, probably alone, and does not have a background in law. No matter how great a man is, you cannot expect him to do everything well, especially if it's in an area that did not need special attention prior. The law during this time was lax (as stated, idk irl), so everything was probably easy breezy legal wise. And that ease was also used for exploitation, leading to the era of corporate schemes/scams. New laws are built on precedents. The law had to change and be stricter, and corporations like dongju also got a wake-up call. Whatever they had going on so far, whether that was a legal representative or an outside counsel, was not enough.

I like to think of it like the seat belt. We know NOW how important it is, and we use it diligently, if not for fear of safety then punishment. But when it was first popularized among the public, the use of seatbelts was ignored, opposed, or challenged in court. If dongju had been driving smoothly without a seatbelt (legal team) then it makes sense that the need for one would elude them. Not hiring one even when they don't need it is a lack of foresight.

It also doesn't help that grandpa has incompetent sons. If he had better foresight, he would have given up on his sons earlier in the past life and found someone else to take over. We know that's what he's doing now in this life, but it doesn't change that dongju fell in the past life. (Or maybe he did have good foresight but was blinded by familial affection and patriarchal views, idk)

So yes, it's weird. Dongju is a car with rowdy passengers, none of whom are wearing seatbelts. We, the audience, know that an accident will happen if nothing is changed. But it's not sheep-falling-from-the-sky type of weird. There's a reason for things happening and story establishes an in-world logic that matches that.