Ropes & Gray Partner David Chun Receives Foreign Legal Consultant Designation from Korean Bar Association
The announcement marks yet another milestone for Ropes & Gray in Korea. On July 20, the firm became the first Foreign Legal Consultant Office in Korean history and at the same time became the first firm to physically open for business in Korea, with its new space in Seoul’s POSCO Center. Mr. Yongkyun Kim, who head’s Ropes & Gray’s Seoul office and is the chair of its Korea Practice, also became Korea’s first-ever registered Foreign Legal Consultant on June 18, 2012.
“This is a great honor that allows me to better serve the firm’s Korean clients with even greater ease and efficiency,” said Mr. Chun, who is a member of the firm’s intellectual property litigation practice. “This is another important step for our Korea practice and underscores the firm’s dedication to the region.”
Mr. Chun is one of approximately a dozen foreign lawyers approved to practice U.S. law in Korea. His practice focuses on litigating patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation and copyright infringement matters, in addition to technology driven government enforcement actions. Over the last decade, he has litigated a broad range of technologies, including semiconductor and flash memory, mobile communications, digital signal processing for hearing aid devices, on-line gaming, alternative fuels, software interfaces, pharmaceutical products, business methods and consumer products.
Ropes & Gray’s Korea office focuses on practices of particular importance to Korean companies: corporate transactions, intellectual property, complex business litigation and arbitration, and U.S. government regulatory issues. The firm will only practice U.S. law, as dictated by Korea’s regulations governing international law firms.
Mr. Yongkyun Kim and Mr. Chun have worked with Korean clients for many years and the firm has established more than two decades of service to Korean clients including, among others, Daewoo, Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS), Hyundai Motor, Hyundai Heavy Industry, Kia Motors, LG, and NCsoft.
Ropes & Gray is a leading global law firm with more than 1,100 lawyers and professionals and offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, London, New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Silicon Valley.