Kim & Chang

Kim & Chang is the preeminent law firm in Korea for Mergers & Acquisitions and is regularly recognized with top industry awards. The lawyers and other professionals in Kim & Chang’s M&A Practice offer unrivaled expertise in all aspects of domestic, cross-border, private and public M&A transactions, including joint ventures, for a broad client base including strategic investors, private equity funds and financial institutions.

Kim & Chang offers a full range of legal services encompassing from the pre-deal to post-transaction stages, providing innovative solutions tailored to each transaction. Our M&A Practice consists of seasoned lawyers qualified in Korea and other jurisdictions throughout the world, including the US, Europe and China, and is well-equipped to handle industry-specific issues to ensure that our clients receive the highest quality service.

Kim & Chang’s clients also benefit from our integrated, whole-firm approach, which enables our M&A Practice to tackle complex issues that may arise in the course of a transaction by working closely with numerous attorneys and advisors in various practice groups, including acquisition financing, antitrust, restructuring, tax, intellectual property, labor, regulatory and compliance.

Kim & Chang’s Labor & Employment Practice, consisting of over 130 professionals with diverse capabilities and experience, is uniquely positioned to provide clients with the most effective representation on all aspects of human resources and industrial relations.

Our Labor & Employment Practice provides a wide range of legal services, including labor and employment-related issues in mergers and acquisitions, business restructuring and reorganization, spin-offs, performance management and personnel management.  In particular, we advise our clients on (i) employment regulations and policies, such as employment contracts and work rules, (ii) individual employment issues, such as wages, working hours, retirement pensions, recruitment and separation, disciplinary actions, prevention of workplace discrimination, harassment and sexual harassment, and industrial safety, (iii) collective labor relations issues, such as collective bargaining and labor-management councils, (iv) implementation and reform of HR or wage systems, and (v) organization assessment in order to provide not only legal stability, but also practical guidance to our clients to encourage their business growth and positive and productive labor-management relations.

We pride ourselves on being regularly ranked as the Top Labor and Employment Law Group in major legal publications such as Chambers Asia-Pacific and The Legal 500 Asia Pacific. 

Our Labor & Employment Practice’s lawyers focus on providing our clients with practical and to-the-point legal advice based on in-depth legal knowledge and experience related to a broad range of labor and employment issues.  We also utilize the expertise of specialists at our firm who are both within and outside our Labor & Employment Practice, providing a multi-disciplinary approach enabling prompt and proactive solutions for our clients.

Kim & Chang’s Insolvency & Restructuring Practice advises debtors, creditors, investors, and other interested parties in connection with court-supervised insolvency proceedings such as bankruptcy and rehabilitation in Korea.  

Kim & Chang also assists distressed companies with the formulation and implementation of restructuring plans, both in and out of court.  The insolvency and bankruptcy lawyers at Kim & Chang have been instrumental in developing the jurisprudence and practices in Korea that are now widely accepted and acclaimed by courts, debtors and creditors.  

Members of the Practice include lawyers with extensive experience in insolvency cases, accountants with experience in the field of corporate restructuring, and other experts who have handled restructuring and insolvency cases at financial institutions, financial authorities and corporations.  Utilizing this experience, the Insolvency & Restructuring Practice helps clients to formulate and implement effective strategies for dealing with liquidity issues they face, both in their own businesses and in their dealings with customers, suppliers and business partners.  Working together with other practices (Mergers & Acquisitions, Labor and Employment, Litigation, etc.) the Insolvency & Restructuring Practice is capable of providing integrated services covering various aspects of corporate restructuring. 

Kim & Chang’s Insolvency & Restructuring Practice is consistently ranked in the highest tier by the major leading legal media, such as Chambers Asia-Pacific, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific and IFLR1000. 

In Korea’s fast-paced and constantly evolving business environment, Kim & Chang’s Intellectual Property (IP) Practice is uniquely qualified to provide comprehensive, high-quality and cost-effective legal services to our clients.

Our IP Practice is the largest in Korea, comprising more than 400 professionals, including IP litigators, patent attorneys, and foreign IP attorneys, as well as over 600 patent engineers, trademark paralegals and support staff. Our Practice personnel work together to provide a full range of services including in relation to patent, trademark, design, copyright, unfair competition, e-commerce, trade secrets, computer, and Internet law expertise in the areas of litigation, enforcement, dispute resolution, licensing, prosecution, transactions, due diligence, audits, asset management and general counseling.

With unparalleled resources and expertise in Korea, the IP Practice provides comprehensive solutions to various IP-related challenges and issues that may be faced by companies and organizations conducting business in Korea—in all aspects of their business, involving the procurement, management and protection of intellectual property rights, and in virtually every technology and product category. The IP Practice is also well-integrated with the firm’s general and corporate practices such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Antitrust & Competition, and Tax, which enables us to handle all potential legal issues, IP-related or otherwise, that our clients may encounter in Korea.

Many of our lawyers have been educated and trained abroad, mainly in Japan, China, Europe and the United States, and have practiced law abroad or worked at multinational companies in many of these countries. Our lawyers are fluent in many languages such as Korean, Japanese, English, French, German and Chinese, and have a deep understanding of our clients’ needs.

Having handled more IP litigations involving foreign entities than any other law firm in Korea, our IP Practice is globally renowned for handling more complex IP litigations and disputes in Korea, and has expertise in all venues of dispute resolution and all varieties of domestic and international commercial arbitration. Our litigation lawyers are widely considered by their peers to be the most respected and skilled litigators in the country. Our ability to represent clients before the Korean Intellectual Property Office (“KIPO”) and the courts is facilitated by the experience and knowhow of our firm’s members who previously served as former KIPO examiners, judges or prosecutors. Some of our members are currently involved in various KIPO committees in connection with amendments of IP laws and regulations.

This depth of experience makes Kim & Chang’s IP Practice the leading provider of IP services in Korea.

Over the 50-year history of Kim & Chang, our Litigation Practice has grown to become Korea’s premier litigation practice, with expertise covering all types of litigations, including securities litigations, white-collar/regulatory investigations, and commercial litigations involving intellectual property, insurance, M&A, and competition, among others, and winning cases for our clients.

Our Litigation Practice has more than 250 seasoned litigators who have a winning track record that is unparalleled in Korea.  Many of our litigators served as judges before joining Kim & Chang, having presided over numerous trials and decided landmark cases.  Our litigators have tried cases in all courts in Korea, including the Supreme Court, and they have litigated all types of complex claims.  Our litigators formulate and implement a dispute resolution strategy tailored for each of our clients, focusing on each client’s business needs and goals.

The litigation landscape in Korea is fast-changing, continually giving rise to new and challenging issues.  Kim & Chang has the resources and expertise to help our clients navigate in such a landscape.  We assemble teams of experienced litigators and industry experts such as accountants and patent lawyers whose expertise will be brought to bear on all aspects of the relevant dispute.  Our ability to assemble such customized teams sets us apart from other law firms in Korea and enables us to effectively and efficiently manage large-scale litigations.

Our Litigation Practice strives to maintain our firm’s position as the law firm of choice when clients need assistance on all disputes.