Recent Developments

On November 23, 2022, CEO Score Daily published an interview with Dae-Keun Cho, an advisor at Lee & Ko. In the interview, Mr. Cho introduced his recent book, There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch: An In-depth Report on Understanding Network Fee Disputes With Google and Netflix. When asked about the controversy over network fees, Mr. Cho said, “It is only logical to pay a reasonable fee for using another person’s resources,” and emphasized that Content Providers (CPs) such as Google and Netflix should also pay a reasonable fee to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for using their public network.

Publication Date: November 18, 2022
The Bell reported on Ho Joon Moon’s presentation in the Private Market Investment Forum. Mr. Moon, partner at Lee & Ko, delved into the legal risk presented by the Material Adverse Effect/Change (MAC) clause in M&A deals. “Recently, there have been two Korean court cases which recognized the existence of MAC,” he said and emphasized that, “until now the MAC threshold was viewed to be stringent, but due to these precedents, the parties have no choice but to negotiate carefully over MAC definition and exceptions.”

The column contributed by Woongryol Baek, a partner of the Lee & Ko Southeast Asia practice team, has been posted in the Kotra global market report on 14 November 2022. He mentioned in the column that since the law on cybersecurity was released in 2019, it took almost 3 years for a new decree on cybersecurity to be promulgated, which provides the law with detailed guidelines. He also pointed out the article stipulates the obligation for local data storage and establishment of a representative office in Vietnam, which will have an impact on the foreign companies who are operating IT business in Vietnam, and emphasized continuous and careful monitoring is required for the next legitimate step taken by competent authorities.

October 24, 2022: The Herald Economy published an opinion article written by Mr. In Seok Lee on Platform Regulation. In the article, Mr. Lee discusses how the debate over platform regulation has taken center stage in Korea following a fire that caused a shutdown of the data center at KAKAO Corp., disrupting service to customers of the country’s leading mobile messenger application. Mr. Lee stressed, “This incident is an opportunity to examine the harmful effects of platform monopolies, and further public interest in the topic, increase stability, among other things. However, we should avoid creating excessive regulations that eliminate or prevent the creation of new platforms or innovation.” 

September 30, 2022.  The Korea Economic Daily has reported Lee & Ko’s awards winning achievements. At the asialaw Awards 2022 announced by the global law magazine Asialaw, Lee & Ko was honored with six awards in four categories including “South Korea Firm of the Year,” winning the most prizes among Korean law firms. Asialaw Awards is an annual awards ceremony hosted by Asialaw, an affiliate of the global financial medial group Euromoney, and each year, the awards give due recognition to leading law firms which have produced successful outcome in the Asia-Pacific region.

On September 19, 2022, an article by Sang Gon Kim at Lee & Ko was published in the Korea Economic Daily. Sang Gon Kim will participate as a writer of ‘Hankyung Essay’ from September to October. In the article, Sang Gon Kim said that the term ‘sustainable growth’, which used to mean environmental protection in the beginning, has developed into a notion that seeks to improve the overall social and economic system. Then he added that there is a widespread perception that ESG (environmental, social, and governance) management of companies, which were addressed as an ancillary matter in the past, is also essential.

On September 1, 2022, the Sejungilbo reported the expansion and reorganization of the criminal tax defense team at Lee & Ko. Sejungilbo explained that Lee & Ko more than doubled the number of criminal tax defense team members from five to 10 at the end of July, and that Sunghwan Kim and Juncheol Jeon, experts in tax criminal cases, were the co-leaders. Sejungilbo also reported that Lee & Ko provides integrated services from investigations into tax crimes to prosecution investigations and criminal trials.

Lee & Ko’s Criminal Tax Defense Team was introduced by EToday on August 5, 2022. In line with the prosecution’s establishment of a joint tax crime investigation team, EToday mentioned that Lee & Ko has doubled the size of its Criminal Tax Defense Team to 10. The team’s co-leaders are Sung Hwan Kim (of the 29th, Judicial Research and Training Institute) and Juncheol Jeon (of the 31st), who both worked at the Financial Tax Investigation Department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. Other new members who will be joining Lee & Ko’s Criminal Tax Defense Team are Youngsub Jang (25th Judicial Research and Training Institute) who served as Head of Financial Tax Investigation Team 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office; Dong Beom Seo (39th), who handled tax criminal cases at the Anti-Corruption Investigation Department, and Kihong Lee (39th) who worked at Samil PwC before being appointed as a Prosecutor in the Tax Affairs Department of the Busan District Prosecutors’ Office. 

[Seoul Economic Daily] On July 27, 2022, Lee & Ko’s Metaverse Task Force (TF) was introduced by Seoul Economic Daily. Seven attorneys specializing in IT, finance, and virtual assets are part of the TF that was launched last February. Seoul Economic Daily stated that “there are growing number of companies seeking advice from Lee & Ko’s Metaverse TF due to the inevitable uncertainties in legal framework for the new concept,” and that “Lee & Ko’s Metaverse TF’s particular strength in prompt communication with companies comes from being located in Alphadom City, where many companies reside.” 

On July 21, 2022, Legal Times reported Lee & Ko’s recent win in a patent infringement lawsuit involving an ice water purifier patent.  The article noted that “Lee & Ko secured a victory for Coway in injunction and compensation for damages litigation at the appellate level and prevailed on all claims, reversing the decision by the court of first instance.”  The victory was the result of meticulous analysis by Lee & Ko’s Intellectual Property Practice Group, which carefully reviewed all related materials from various lawsuits between the companies that took place over the past eight years, to accurately identify relevant technical features of the asserted patent and Coway’s product and to develop legal arguments based on such technical differences.  This led to a robust and persuasive showing of the differences between ChungHo Nais’s asserted patent and Coway’s product, paving the way to the victory.

Meail Business Newspaper reported on July 12, 2022, that Lee & Ko concluded an MOU, 'Supporting ESG for Fintech Companies,' with Korea Fintech Industry Association (KORFIN). With the signing of this MOU, about 20 Lee & Ko professionals, including Kyunghoon Lee, the head of ESG Group, Tong Keun Seol, one of the leading environment & safety experts, Jongsoo (Jay) Yoon, TMT & IT attorney, Chloe Jung-Myung Lee, fintech & financial regulations attorney, Suyeon Kim, Lee & Ko's Corporate Sustainability Management reserch fellow, will conduct ESG consulting and training programs specialized in the fintech industry. 

On 10 July 2022, Legal Times reported that Young-Jae Park joined Lee & Ko. Mr Park has been actively involved in all aspects of maritime, insurance, and international commercial disputes and arbitration practice for 10 years at the maritime and insurance section of Choi & Kim. He has handled diverse cross-border cargo claims, charterparty disputes, and major casualties (collision, fire, sinking, oil pollution). He obtained his LL.M. degree from LSE in 2020, with his studies focusing on maritime arbitration.