Recent Developments

Lee & Ko held a seminar in collaboration with the Department of Healthcare of the Korea In-House Counsel Association on 22 February 2024.

In the first session, Ms. Young Eun Son presented countermeasures against search and seizure based on her 25 years of experience as an expert in various fields related to criminal cases, including adjunct professor at the Ewha Womans University and University of Seoul Law School and assistant special prosecutor at the special prosecution on master sergeant Ye Ram Lee’s death. She explained in detail various matters that require particular attention based on the Criminal Procedure Act revised in 2011 and 2016 and the latest precedents related to search and seizure.

In the second session, Mr. Seung Ho Choi gave a presentation on “Responding to KFTC Dawn Raids.” Since 2012, he has used his vast experience in responding to KFTC dawn raids and conducting compliance projects to give presentations that help practitioners with important practical issues related to dawn raids.

In the third session, Mr. Yuseok Kim, a partner of Lee & Ko, presented "2023 M&A Trends in the Healthcare Market". He shared useful reports and analysis on 2023 M&A trends in the healthcare sector, predicted the recovery of the M&A market in 2024, and explained various legal issues that are important to consider in healthcare M&A transactions from the perspective of a healthcare M&A expert.

In the fourth session, Ms. Soo Yeon Oh gave a presentation on “The trend of Food Technology Regulations”. She shared overseas trends and current status of regulations on culture meat(cell culture food ingredients) and MediFood (special medical food) among the food tech business fields, and suggested future tasks and presented prospects from a healthcare expert perspective.

Lee & Ko has been recognized once again for its exceptional capabilities in legal service in 2024 by Chambers Global. The firm was ranked as a top leading law firm (Band 1) in seven practice areas by the Chambers Global in its latest 2024 edition. As for the individual rankings, the firm’s 32 attorneys has been recognized as Ranked Lawyers for their remarkable performance in their respective practice areas.


Banking & Finance
Capital Markets
Corporate/M&A
Dispute Resolution: Litigation
Intellectual Property
International & cross Border Capabilities: South Korean Firms
North Korea: General Business Law


Banking & Finance: Yeo Kyoon Yoon, Woo Young Jung, Yong-Jae Chang, Myoung Chul Kwak
Capital Markets: Hyunjoo Oh, Seunga Hyun
Capital Markets: Securitisation: Jin Hong Kwon, Hyunjoo Oh
Corporate/M&A: Kyu Wha Lee, Sanggon Kim, Hyeong Gun Lee, Ho Joon Moon, Yong Joon Yoon
Dispute Resolution: Arbitration: Robert Wachter, Sean(Sungwoo) Lim, Saemee Kim, Sanghoon Han, Grace Yoon
Dispute Resolution: Litigation: Won Seok Ko, Pyoung Keun Song, Seong Won Chang
Intellectual Property: Jae Hoon Kim, Un Ho Kim, Choong Jin Oh, Keum Nang Park, Hyeon Gil Ryoo, Vera Eun Woo Lee
International Trade: Kichang Chung, Young Gee Park, Young Jae Cho, Hyunsoo Joo
North Korea: General Business Law (Foreign Expertise based abroad in South Korea): Hyung Sub Lim

Lee & Ko was selected as Tier 1 law firm in Korea across 15 fields according to ‘The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2024’. Furthermore, 52 Lee & Ko attorneys were selected as ‘Hall of Fame’, ‘Leading Individuals’, ‘Next Generation Partners’, and ‘Rising Stars’ in their respective fields.

[Firm Rankings]
 Antitrust and Competition
 Banking & Finance
 Capital Markets
 Corporate and M&A
 Dispute Resolution
 Fintech and financial services regulatory
 Insurance
 Intellectual Property
 International Arbitration
 Labour and Employment
 Projects and Energy
 Real Estate
 Regulatory: Compliance and Investigations
 Shipping
 Tax

[Ranked Lawyers]
 Antitrust and Competition: Hwan Jeong, Suruyn Kim, Jung Won Kwon
 Banking & Finance: Yeo Kyoon Yoon, Myoung Chul Kwak, Hyunsu Kim
 Capital Markets: Hyunjoo Oh, Dongyon Kim
 Corporate and M&A: Hyeong Gun Lee, Ho Joon Moon, Sang Gon Kim, Daehoon Koo, Kyungchun Kim, Sung Min Kim
 Dispute Resolution: Pyoung Keun Song, Seong Won Chang, Jae Heon Park, Yeon Woo Lee
 Fintech and financial services regulatory: Jongsoo (Jay) Yoon, Hyeong Min Yoo, Seong Hwan Ju
 Insurance: Jin Hong Kwon, Jin-Young Jung, Sae Um Kim
 Intellectual Property: Choong Jin Oh, Keum Nang Park, Un Ho Kim,
 Intellectual Property: PATMA: Kyungjin Kim, Soo Yeon Park
 International Arbitration: Robert Wachter, Sean (Sungwoo) Lim, Saemee Kim, Sunyoung Kim, Elizabeth Shin
 Labour and Employment: Chang-Soo Jin, Sang-Hoon Lee, Jae Hoon-Choi, William Kim, Shawn (Seong Ho) Han
 Projects and Energy: Hun Ko, Hyunsu Kim
 Real Estate: Jin Wook Yang, Jee In Kim
 Regulatory: Compliance and Investigations : Tae Yop Lee, Jae Woo Jung, Jung Han Nam
 Shipping: Jin-Young Jung, Yang Ho Yoon
 Tax: Byeong Jun Son, Sung Hyun Ryu
 TMT: Kwang Bae Park, Hyun Jun Kim, Il Shin Lee

The Legal 500 Asia Pacific is annually published by Legalease, a global agency that evaluates the capacity of law firms all over the world based on various standards through a comprehensive review of submitted documents by law firms, interviews with lawyers specialized in each field, and feedback from over 300,000 clients.

Lee & Ko lawyers Sanggon Kim, Ho Joon Moon, Sung Min Kim, Jaewoo Kwak have been selected as ‘Korea Super 30 Lawyers 2023’ presented by ALB(Asian Legal Business) Magazine. 

Mr. Sanggon Kim is currently the managing partner of Lee & Ko and an M&A expert in the areas of M&A and Corporate Governance. He has a high reputation as one of the experts who conducts the largest number M&A transactions in Korea. In particular, Mr. Kim also has established his position as a leading lawyer not only in cross-border M&A but also in the fields of hostile M&A and conglomerates' restructuring into a holding company structure.

Mr. Ho Joon Moon is an expert corporate lawyer with extensive experience in the areas of M&A, Private Equity, Corporate governance, Foreign Investment, Anti-Corruption & Regulatory Compliance and Hostile Takeovers & Defense. Mr. Moon has also been selected ‘Asia’s Top 15 M&A Lawyers’ by ALB. 

Mr. Sung Min Kim, who currently heads the Startups team at Lee & Ko, is a corporate lawyer specializing in the areas of M&A, Corporate Governance, Foreign Investment, FinTech, Startup, Personal Information Protection and Capital Market Regulation & Compliance. Mr. Kim has also been selected as the Next Generation Partners in the field of Corporate and M&A for four consecutive years by Legal 500, a global law firm evaluation media.

Mr. Jaewoo Kwak is a lawyer who has built his career in the field of Intellectual Property and is recognized for his excellent expertise not only in civil and criminal disputes over IP rights such as domestic patent, trademark, unfair competition, copyrights, trade secrets, design, domain names, employee invention, licensing and entertainment, but also in multiple international patent/ trade secrets disputes in U.S. Federal Court cases and ITC investigations, and in discovery task which has recently been in discussion for domestic adoption.

The ALB(Asian Legal Business), an Asia-Pacific law magazine published by Thomson Reuters, selects and present 30 lawyers with the most recommendations by clients in Korea based on the extensive clients’ survey results.

In the '2023 Korea’s Top 100 Lawyers' researched by Asia Business Law Journal, 23 lawyers from Lee & Ko have been selected, marking the largest number among domestic law firms.

The list of Korea’s Top Lawyers selected from Lee & Ko is as follows:
 

Banking & Finance:	Yong-Jae Chang, Woo Young Jung
Capital Markets:	Hyunjoo Oh, Jin Hong Kwon
Competition/Antitrust:	Yong Seok Ahn, Hwan Jeong
Corporate/M&A:	Sanggon Kim, Kyu Wha Lee, Hyeong Gun Lee
Dispute Resolution: Arbitration:	Robert Wachter, Sean(Sungwoo) Lim
Dispute Resolution: Litigation:	Won Seok Ko, John Kim
Dispute Resolution: White-Collar Crime:	Yong Seok Park
Employment:	Sang Hoon Lee
Fintech:	Chloe Lee
Insurance:	Jin Hong Kwon, Jinyoung Jung
IP:	Jae Hoon Kim
Projects & Energy:	Hun Ko, Dong Eun Kim
Shipping:	Jinyoung Jung, Woo Young Jung
TMT:	Hwan Kyoung Ko, Kwang Bae Park

Asia Business Law Journal (ABLJ), an Asian regional law magazine, conducts research on thousands of domestic and foreign in-house counsel as well as lawyers at international law firms to select the Top 100 lawyers in Korea every year. 
 

Lee & Ko was ranked Band 1 by 'Chambers Asia-Pacific Guide 2024’ in 13 practice areas. For the individual rankings, 65 attorneys were recognized as ‘Leading Individuals’ throughout all practice areas.

[Firm Rankings] 

South Korea
 Banking & Finance
 Capital Markets
 Corporate/M&A 
 Dispute Resolution: Litigation
 Dispute Resolution: White-Collar Crime
 Employment
 Insurance
 Intellectual Property
 International Trade
 Projects & Energy
 Restructuring/Insolvency
 Shipping Finance
 Technology, Media, Telecoms

North Korea
 General Business Law (Expertise Based Abroad)


[Ranked Lawyers]

South Korea 
 Banking & Finance: Yeo Kyoon Yoon, Woo Young Jung, Yong-Jae Chang, Myoung Chul Kwak
 Capital Markets: Hyunjoo Oh, Seunga Hyun
 Capital Markets: Securitisation: Jin Hong Kwon, Hyunjoo Oh
 Competition/Antitrust: Yong Seok Ahn, Hwan Jeong, Jeong-Ho Sun, Suruyn Kim
 Corporate/M&A: Kyu Wha Lee, Sanggon Kim, Hyeong Gun Lee, Ho Joon Moon, Yong Joon Yoon
 Dispute Resolution: Arbitration: Robert Wachter, Sean(Sungwoo) Lim, Saemee Kim, Sanghoon Han, Grace Yoon
 Dispute Resolution: Litigation: Won Seok Ko, Pyoung Keun Song, Seong Won Chang
 Dispute Resolution: White-Collar Crime: Yong Seok Park, Tae Ki Ghil, Taeyop Lee, Jae Man Yu, Youngsub Jang
 Employment: Chang Soo Jin, Hyunseok Song, Sang Hoon Lee, William Kim  
 Insurance: Jinyoung Jung, Jin Hong Kwon, Yang Ho Yoon
 Intellectual Property: Jae Hoon Kim, Un Ho Kim, Choong Jin Oh, Keum Nang Park, Hyeon Gil Ryoo, Vera Eun Woo Lee 
 International Trade: Kichang Chung, Young Gee Park, Young Jae Cho, Hyunsoo Joo, Heysoo Kim  Projects & Energy: Dong Eun Kim, Hun Ko, Kwang Yul Kim, Jungmin Pak
 Projects & Energy: Dong Eun Kim, Hun Ko, Kwang Yul Kim, Jungmin Pak
 Real Estate: Junghwan Lee, Dong Seok Woo 
 Restructuring/Insolvency: Eunjai Lee, Wanshik Lee, Jung Hyun Lee
 Shipping: Jinyoung Jung
 Shipping: Finance: Woo Young Jung, Yunjeong Seo
 Tax: Byeong Jun Son, Kyung Tae Kim  
 Technology, Media, Telecoms: Kwang Bae Park, Hwan Kyoung Ko, Ju Bong Jang, Samuel (Soon-Yub) Kwon, Sunghee Chae 

North Korea 
 General Business Law (Expertise Based Abroad): Hyung Sub Lim

Chambers Asia-Pacific Guide is a law firm evaluation publication released by Chambers and Partners, a leading global legal publisher based in England, which selects top law firms and top lawyers in the Asia-Pacific region each year based on a comprehensive analysis of data submitted by law firms, interviews with partner lawyers and clients, and recently accomplished work.