Korean firm Kim & Chang has made two major appointments in just over one month, hiring Yulchon partner Dr Youngjin Jung and former patent judge Hoe Kee Lee.
Kim is rejoining the firm after leaving in 2005 to take up a role as vice director of Korea’s National Intelligence Service. He has also practiced for 25 years as a former public prosecutor. His return this month as senior partner in the white collar crime defence group (WCC) will “be instrumental in reinforcing the WCC practice,” said the firm.
Jung joined in mid-September from Yulchon and his appointment will boost Kim & Chang’s antitrust, international trade and arbitration practice – he is a registered arbitrator on the World Bank’s ICSID panel and was also a legal advisor to the Korean government on its US and EU Free Trade Agreements, which has paved the way for foreign law firms to enter the local market by 2016.
Kim & Chang is strengthening its international arbitrations practice in light of the free trade agreements which will open up a flood of work as Korean companies venture outside domestic waters. “Korea has entered into over 80 bilateral investment treaties/FTAs which provide for ICSID arbitrations, so if a Korean company’s rights were compromised by the foreign regulations they might initiate ICSID arbitration proceedings against those countries,” said Jung. “As of now we don’t have real cases like those, but it’s really matter of time that they will come up,” said Jung.
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