Firm Profile > KL Partners > Seoul, South Korea

KL Partners > Firm Profile

KL Partners was founded in 2015 by a team of leading specialists with common principle of providing services to clients in Korea and abroad based on the highest level of expertise and experience. Since then we have continued to expand and also grow our pool of professionals for even better services to our clients.  All of our partners and professionals have been recognized as top-level experts in each field.

We do not seek to be the largest firm in Korea. Rather, our goal is to be the firm of choice for clients facing difficult legal issues in challenging disputes and business dealings.  Thus, our firm focuses on establishing long-term relationships with clients based on personalized legal services and hands-on involvement by our partners.

Our core values are:

• Dedicated client service with a keen understanding of the client’s needs and goals
• Highest quality of service led by hands-on partners from the start to finish
• Value-added service by lean teams comprised of experts in the relevant fields

Main areas of practice
International dispute resolution: KL Partners is the first firm of its kind in Korea to specialize specifically in cross-border litigation and international arbitration.

Commercial arbitration: Based on its partners’ experience and background as leading corporate/M&A attorneys in Korea, KL Partners is recognized as a market leader with unparalleled hands-on experience and expertise in post-M&A and corporate related disputes, including shareholder disputes, post-merger disputes, joint venture, earn-outs and commodity sales, etc.

As a result, KL Partners has been chosen by sophisticated M&A participants, who are able to recognize the difference between “general practitioners” and “industry specialists”, to handle the most complicated and high-profile post-M&A arbitration cases in Korea.

Investor-State Disputes (ISD): The firm’s partners are widely known and recognised as pioneers and front-runners in the emerging area of investor-state disputes (ISD) in Korea, having represented the investor in the first-ever ICSID proceeding brought against the Republic of Korea. The firm has also recently been selected to act in two additional ISD cases, further solidifying its position as the market leader in the area of investor-state disputes.

The firm’s international dispute resolution practice group is led by leading attorneys in the field who have acted as counsel in some of the most high-profile cases, including numerous cases before the Korean courts, ICSID, ICC, SIAC, HKIAC, KCAB, LCIA and ad-hoc arbitrations under the UNCITRAL rules.

Corporate/M&A: KL Partners advises on a broad range of corporate matters, including M&A, cross-border investments and private equity transactions. KL Partners’ Corporate/M&A team is led by partners who have consistently been recognized by foremost legal publications as ‘Leading Lawyers’ in the field of corporate/M&A in Korea.

Since its opening, KL Partners has been retained to handle some of the most high-profile domestic and cross-border M&A transactions and has consistently been ranked in the Korea M&A league tables as one of the top law firms in terms of deal size and volume.

Beomsu Kim (managing partner): Mr Kim, managing partner and chair of the international dispute resolution practice group, is widely recognised as a market leader in the area of cross-border dispute resolution, with particular expertise in ISDs and commercial arbitration. Prior to establishing KL Partners, Mr Kim led the international dispute resolution practice group at Shin & Kim and served as a judge at the district courts of Korea for nine years and as an arbitrator in numerous arbitration proceedings.

Dong-Seok (Johan) Oh (partner): Mr. Oh is a partner at KL Partners and Head of the Dispute Resolution Practice Group, which covers both international arbitration and cross-border litigation.  Mr. Oh has particular expertise and specialization in construction and engineering disputes, as well as energy, project finance and international litigation matters spanning across the globe. His recent move to KL Partners from Kim & Chang has sent shockwaves throughout the Korean legal market.

Seong Hoon (Sean) Yi (partner): Mr Yi is the chair of the corporate/M&A practice group. Mr Yi has worked on some of the most high-profile M&A transactions in Korea and has been regularly recognised as a leading attorney in the field of corporate/M&A in Korea. Mr Yi is also a professor at Yonsei University law school, which is one of the top law schools in Korea.

Eun Nyung (Ian) Lee (partner): Mr Lee focuses his practice on international arbitration as well as corporate/M&A and banking/finance matters. He has experience in cross-border and domestic M&A, private equity, acquisition financing and real estate transactions and financing. He is also highly specialized in commercial arbitration and is one of the leading partners in the firm’s international dispute resolution practice group.

Ki Seong Park (partner): Mr Park focuses on representing clients in disputes related to finance, securities, antitrust, commercial transactions and hostile M&A transactions based on his extensive litigation experience in Korean courts.

Lawyer Profiles

Photo	Name	Position	Profile
	Mr Jaewoong Bang	Attorney	View Profile
	Mr Jae Hyuk Chang	Attorney	View Profile
	Mr Han Gyeol Im	Attorney	View Profile
	Mr Jeong Cheol Kim	Attorney	View Profile
	Ms Jessika Kim	Attorney	View Profile
	Mr Seung Wook Kim	Attorney	View Profile
	Mr Byung Chul Kim	Attorney	View Profile
	Mr Keewoong Lee	Attorney	View Profile
	Mr Dong-Seok (Johan) Oh	Partner	View Profile
	Mr Young Suk Park	Senior Attorney	View Profile