Monday, August 5, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Baker & McKenzie Hires Korea Partner for Hong Kong Office
Baker & McKenzie has hired a new Korea practice partner for its Hong Kong office.
Former Kim & Chang foreign legal consultant Seong Soo Kim specializes in cross-border project financings and international securities deals involving Korean companies.
Kim had worked at Kim & Chang, Korea's largest law firm, since 2002. Before that, he was an associate in Hong Kong with Shearman & Sterling.
Though Baker & McKenzie is opening a Seoul office, pending regulatory approval, it is unclear if Kim will work in that office. A firm spokeswoman says Baker & McKenzie has so far only decided to send three other Korean-speaking lawyers to Seoul when the office begins operations.
Baker & McKenzie announced it was applying to open a Korea office in November. It will be the firm's 73rd worldwide.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Baker & McKenzie Joins Korea Rush
Baker & McKenzie has added its name to the list of firms looking to enter Korea.
The Chicago-based firm announced Tuesday it had applied to the Korean Ministry of Justice for approval to open an office in Seoul. Baker & McKenzie joins almost 20 other international firms that have also applied or stated their intention to do so.
Several, including Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Ropes & Gray, and Clifford Chance, have already been approved and have officially opened their offices in Seoul.
Baker & McKenzie said Nam Hung Paik will lead the office once the application is granted. Paik's current position at the firm is unclear. Though once a Chicago partner at the firm, Paik was described in the firm's announcement only as a "veteran lawyer" and has no profile on the Baker & McKenzie website.
Neither a firm spokesperson nor Hong Kong-based Korea practice head Won Lee responded to requests for comment.
In a statement, the firm said its Seoul office would be focusing primarily on cross-border matters for Korean companies, including mergers and acquisitions, antitrust and intellectual property litigation.
The office will be Baker & McKenzie's 73rd worldwide, and its 15th in the Asia-Pacific region.
K&L Gates to Open South Korea Office
Namdaemun Gate, Seoul. Photo: Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images U.S. firms are continuing to eye the recently relaxed foreign law firm market in South Korea, with K&L Gates becoming the latest firm to announce it received the appropriate licensing for an office in Seoul.
The Korean Ministry of Justice granted final approval last week of K&L Gates' application to operate a foreign legal service office in Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea.
K&L Gates will officially open its office in the country in January 2013 after registering with the Korean Bar Association in the coming weeks.
The Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement went into effect in March, opening South Korea's legal market to U.S. firms for the first time. Since then, a number of Am Law 200 firms have expressed their intention to enter the market, continuing their Asian expansion beyond just China to include places like Singapore, Vietnam and now South Korea.
"We very much appreciate the expeditious processing of our application by the Ministry of Justice," said Peter J. Kalis, K&L Gates chairman and global managing partner, in a statement. "Korea's economy is one of the largest both in Asia and throughout the world. The country's export-fueled growth of the past decades has led to the more recent, and increasingly robust, trend of foreign investments overseas by its companies and financial institutions.
"We believe that our Seoul office will provide these outward-looking Korean business enterprises, wherever their destinations may be, with ready access to the resources of a single law firm that is both global and local at the same time."
Current K&L Gates New York partner Eric Yoon will serve as the Seoul office's chief representative. Yoon has practiced law for more than 20 years in the areas of financial services regulation, mergers and acquisitions, financing and private equity investments.
David K.Y. Tang, K&L Gates' managing partner of operations in Asia, noted in a statement that South Korea is one of the few countries in the world that has both widely distributed wealth and a large, well-educated population base.
The Seoul location will make for K&L Gates' 42nd office worldwide. K&L Gates has been expansion-minded in recent months.
In August, the firm announced it was in talks to merge with Australian law firm Middletons. If approved, K&L Gates would have more than 400 lawyers across 11 offices in the Asia-Pacific region, the firm said. The merger would result in K&L Gates having offices in: Beijing; Brisbane, Australia; Hong Kong; Melbourne, Australia; Perth, Australia; Seoul; Shanghai; Singapore; Sydney; Taipei; and Tokyo.
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