About

“To create innovation, you must have knowledge, skills and a lot of fun.”

Award-winning, bicultural legal advisor with more than a decade of general counsel experience with proven track record of delivering solutions for complex commercial issues by the innovative application of law. As general counsel and chief compliance officer, Hyun-Soo Kim is handling all legal and compliance matters for both Hyundai and Genesis in Europe.

Hyun-Soo Kim has not only been recognised by the legal press but also by mass media as a role model for reshaping the image of in-house lawyers and pioneering new approaches to how legal services are delivered.

Some of the highlights of his career include:

The development, the idea and the launch of a database, known as Hyundai Emergency Legal Programme (H.E.L.P.) to support subsidiaries and dealerships during the viral pandemic in 10 European countries and their regions. H.E.L.P. had two main functions: first, to help Hyundai dealers and subsidiaries navigate the plethora of information coming from national, international, and regional authorities. The information was organised by region, so that users were only shown the information that is relevant to them. And second, the database was a place to distribute information from within the Hyundai Group. This is to help them stabilise and optimise their liquidity during the Covid-19 crisis and to operate in line with relevant regulations resulting from the viral pandemic. Hyundai was the first OEAM in the automotive sector to support its retail network this way.

Hyun-Soo navigated Hyundai`s biggest commercial real estate acquisition in Europe.

Furthermore, Kim developed and implemented an industry-wide recognided innovative concept to protect a selective distribution system by re-designing the manufacturer´s warranty scheme. Change of Hyundai´s manufacturer´s warranty regime by first time application of ECJ`s Metro. Cartier decision in the automotive industry. Together with the development of a unique customer protection programme effectively stopped the distribution of vehicles by unauthorised resellers, a commonly known issue not only in the automotive industry. Roll out and implementation included the creation of a pan-European IT-system which digitalised workflows and legal processes across European jurisdictions, such as claim assessments or acts of assignment.

He delivered strategic advice and established Hyundai´s first car sharing concept based upon full electric and hydrogen vehicles. Concept which focuses on European metropolitan areas, is currently operating in Paris and Amsterdam.

Hyun-Soo navigated the acquisitions of the seven biggest distributors in Europe and their consolidation into the Hyundai Group. This acquisition remains the biggest transaction of the Hyundai Group in Europe to date and is regarded as a landmark deal within the Group.

Finally, he developed the strategy and lead the operations to stop the unauthorised distribution of Hyundai vehicles originating outside the EEA. The project included numerous legal proceedings in several European jurisdictions — over 80 injunction proceedings in parallel only in Germany. The operation resulted in over 650 collected cease and desist declarations, effective end of the inflow of previously up to 20,000 units originating outside the EEA within nine months.