Lee & Ko

The Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) Practice Group of Lee & Ko is recognized as having one of Asia’s finest M&A practice handling the most renown high-end deals ensuring its position as the undisputed market leader in Korea and throughout Asia. For more than 40 years from its establishment in 1977, the Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group has been the foremost premier leader in Korea and throughout Asia in the M&A practice area, serving as Korean counsel in major Korean, and as lead counsel in major cross-border, M&A transactions. Based on its ample experience accumulated for years in its long history, the Group has provided the most efficient and accurate advisory services to its clients, well coping with clients’ demands, however complicated or difficult to meet, by providing the most appropriate solutions for the transactions concerned in the newest or most creative manner. Its outstanding services in the cross-border transactions are also well demonstrated in many M&A transactions executed all over the world (i.e., in the U.S, Europe, China, Japan, Central Asia, etc.), based on which the Group stands shoulder to shoulder with the world premier law firms renowned in the M&A practice.

The Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group has top-class competence and expertise with all requisite knowledge in M&A. Lee & Ko’s M&A specialists are also equipped with in-depth background knowledge in the specific segments of relevant business/industry, such as, finance, IT, energy, environment, healthcare, etc. Accordingly, the Group can provide industry-specific specialized M&A services to its domestic and international clients.

Lee & Ko has provided first class legal services in the real estate and construction sector in Korea for the past thirty years. Our Real Estate Practice Group, which is one of the largest in Korea, consists of a number of experts in the field, including former judges with vast experience in handling real estate and construction related court cases. Lee & Ko has a well-established and well-earned reputation for excellence in advising and assisting clients with respect to transactions involving sales and purchases of large-scale commercial and residential buildings, and other real estate related transactions, such as commercial leasing and industrial and residential real estate development projects.

Lee & Ko’s reputation for excellence in its real estate practice has attracted a large number of clients who are major actors in the real estate market. Our clients include, among others, major construction companies competing for market share and overall construction capacity, major department store companies with a high volume of real-estate related businesses, major fast food franchisors, major domestic financial institutions, as well as foreign financial institutions, and foreign hotel chains.

The Family, Divorce and Estates team provides comprehensive services ranging from advice on a broad range of family, divorce and estates law issues to zealously advocating for clients in the courtroom. Our family, divorce and estates law practice is particularly renowned for its successful representation of high profile and high net-worth individuals while handling all matters with the utmost sensitivity and confidentiality.

Many of our clients have complex financial and business arrangements. Working closely with our colleagues in the Tax, Corporate/M&A and Trust groups, and drawing upon the extensive resources of the firm’s Litigation group, we are able to handle even the most complex and challenging issues.

Lee & Ko has been selected as Band 1 law firm in Private Wealth Law category in the “Chambers High Net Worth (HNW) 2019” issued by the global legal media Chambers & Partners.

The Litigation & Arbitration Practice Group of Lee & Ko is widely recognized as having premier litigation and arbitration teams with the leading litigation and arbitration practice in Korea, and for delivering the most optimal outcomes for clients. Our reputation as one of the most reliable and outstanding law firms in the practice areas of litigation and arbitration stems from more than thirty years of experience encompassing representation of foreign and domestic clients in a broad range of litigation matters, and our unrelenting efforts and commitment to provide only top-quality legal services to our clients. Also, our ability to manage high-risk and complex litigation and arbitration cases and to meet the needs of sophisticated clients is a clear reflection of our strong team consisting of specialists of the highest caliber, the size of our practice and our extensive experience in representing clients in a multitude of landmark and leading cases in Korea. 

Our Litigation Practice Group is comprised of recognized litigators in a wide range of practice areas with significant trial experience and unparalleled national network, including many former Supreme Court judges, chief judges, real estate experts, construction experts, securities and finance experts, M&A experts, TMT experts and IP experts. Among the most highly-regarded lawyers are Mr. Kyu Hong Lee (a former Supreme Court Justice), Mr. In Soo Kim (a former Chief Judge of the Administrative Court) and Mr. Kwang Joon Kwon {a leading expert in tax and insolvency laws, and a former Chief Judge of the Civil Division No. 50 of the Seoul Central District Court (predecessor to current Insolvency Court) and a former judge for the Tax Tribunal}. Many other key members consist of former judges who held various important and high-level positions in Korean courts across the nation. Also, the Group has a number of former prosecutors who held senior positions such as Mr. Kyung Sik Hong and Mr. Cheol Jun Park both adding to the Group their substantial experience across every segment of criminal litigation (including white collar crimes). 

Our International Arbitration & Cross Border Litigation Practice Group, as one of the two law firms that handled the first International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) case in Korea in the late 1980s, has accumulated exceptional track records over the years, with Mr. Yong Suk Yoon, Mr. Yong Seok Ahn and Mr. Sean (Sung Woo) Lim widely recognized as the most outstanding attorneys in the area of international arbitration. 

The Litigation & Arbitration Practice Group enjoys a strong track record of involvement in numerous high-profile cases. Through such involvement, we have consistently demonstrated stellar ability and exceptional skills to achieve successful outcomes in all sorts of civil, criminal or commercial disputes in courts and have won many precedent-setting victories in cases that made national headlines.

Our Insolvency & Restructuring Practice Group has established a prestigious name for themselves in the insolvency and restructuring practice area as evidenced by the representation of high profile clients in the most renowned insolvency and restructuring cases. The Group is recognized for having unrivalled expertise capable of offering practical counseling on a wide array of contentious and non-contentious issues encountered in insolvency and restructuring situations.

The Insolvency & Restructuring Practice Group is chaired by Mr. Kyu Hong Lee, a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Korea, who had served as the Chief Judge of the Insolvency Division of Seoul Central District Court. Under his leadership, together with the Group members' vast experiences in corporate and banking transactions, the Group has earned a strong reputation for possessing the resources, and most importantly, the specialized capability to deal with complicated insolvency and restructuring cases to the satisfaction of clients. 

Since the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s, insolvency practice has developed rapidly and the Insolvency & Restructuring Practice Group has made contributions at critical moments of such developments-early M&As of financially troubled or insolvent companies, international insolvency cases, and insolvency cases of financial institutions, to name a few areas of such contributions.

Lee & Ko's White Collar Crime Practice Group offers unparalleled legal advice and practical solutions to businesses and individuals facing allegations of criminal wrongdoing. The professionals of the Group take pride in utilizing their unique expertise and experience in securing the most satisfactory outcome for their clients in criminal and quasi-criminal, regulator proceedings. The professionals of the Group are the leaders in the field. Former judicial officers, former criminal prosecutors, former American criminal prosecutors, and the lawyers with law enforcement background from the Korea National Police Agency are among them.

Lee & Ko's White Collar Crime Practice Group is solution-oriented. The Group understands the high-risk, high-stake, and high-stress nature of being a target of criminal investigation. To best protect and serve its clients’ interests, the Group operates around taskforces. An individual taskforce is comprised of professionals with relevant expertise and experience, and each taskforce flexibly expands and shrinks as often as necessary as the matter progresses. Using this approach, the Group can promptly deliver comprehensive legal solutions to clients throughout all stages of representation in the most economically viable manner.

Lee & Ko's White Collar Crime Practice Group distinguishes itself from others by focusing on clients’ individual needs, and exploring all possible options to meet clients’ needs. This approach includes aggressively pursuing offensive tactics on behalf of clients against wrongdoers. The Group knows how to identify, locate and secure inculpatory evidence to facilitate said compulsory initiation of a criminal investigation, and eventually, a criminal prosecution. Working closely with various government agencies, the Group is highly experienced in representing clients in the aforementioned process. 

Overall, Lee & Ko's White Collar Crime Practice Group is confident that it can provide clients with comprehensive and wide-ranging legal options to clients in the most reliable, effective and efficient manner. That is Lee & Ko’s promise.

Lee & Ko’s IP Practice Group is highly experienced in protecting clients’ IP rights in all areas, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade secrets, unfair competition and domain names, among many others. Our IP Practice Group regularly handles IP cases in various dispute resolution venues, covering all procedural and substantive issues in infringement suits, invalidation actions, cancellation actions and scope confirmation trials, as well as various criminal law aspects of IP rights enforcement, customs seizures (customs proceedings), Trade Commission proceedings and Fair Trade Commission proceedings.

Lee & Ko’s Labor and Employment Practice Group (“Group”) was established over thirty years ago and has continuously been recognized as a top-tier practice group in Korea by local as well as international publications and institutions.

The largest group of labor and employment lawyers
The Group is the largest team of professionals in any single law firm in Korea dedicated solely to the practice of labor and employment, making the Group’s expertise the preferred option by all industry observers.

Labor and employment law research institute
Lee & Ko has operated its own labor and employment law research institute. The research institute has focused not only in analyzing and researching labor and employment related laws for clients, but also in carrying out government-fundeded research projects and assisting government agencies with drafting labor and employment related laws and regulations.