Korean firm Hwang Mok Park’s merger with boutique litigation firm Hanseung has helped it to acquire an office in Shanghai. Hanseung’s two-year-old Shanghai office will form part of the newly merged firm, which has been operating under the Hwang Mok Park brand name since September 2009.

The new office extends Hwang Mok Park’s presence beyond Korea for the first time. Currently it is staffed with three partners, including office head Young Gyu Kim, but the firm plans to build up the practice further.

“We’re at the very beginning stages in building the office,” said managing partner Sang Il Park. “So far the office largely assists Korean businesses going into China, but in the long term when Chinese companies are seeking to do business in Korea, we’d see the Shanghai office as a good foothold for that. We’ll be developing a strategy going forward on how to achieve that growth.”

Park said that Hwang Mok Park has formed good working relationships with PRC firms – especially Jun He – through its membership of the Lex Mundi network. “We’ve worked with [Jun He] on many cases and, although we don’t have any official alliances, we’ve noticed that through the network we’ve gained a lot of referrals from other member firms,” said Park.

Hwang Mok Park isn’t the only Asian firm to have used networking as part of a broader presence-building exercise. Earlier this week, the Japanese ‘Big Four’ firm Nishimura & Asahi announced that it is opening a Beijing office next year. The firm will build up a presence there through the Beijing office of its new ally, Soga, Uryu & Itoga.

Hwang Mok Park : the numbers

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