Bae Kim & Lee law firm news

oubled Korean automaker Ssangyong appears closer to finalising what has been an arduous restructuring process after Indian conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra signed a deal to purchase a 70 % stake in the company for US$464m.

Two of Korea’s largest law firms, Bae Kim & Lee and Kim & Chang, have played key roles in Hana Bank’s acquisition of its smaller rival Korea Exchange Bank.

Korean law firms Lee & Ko and Shin & Kim have both been awarded advisory roles on the landmark privatisation of Woori Finance Holdings (WFH), the country’s largest bank, fending off eight other law firms including Kim & Chang, Bae Kim & Lee and Yulchon to win the mandate.

India’s AZB & Partners, Singapore’s WongPartnership and Korea’s Kim & Chang have benefited from a resurgence in Asian (ex Japan and Australasia) M&A in the first half of this year by claiming the top three spots on legal advisory leader boards, according to data released by mergermarket.

The continuous intra-Asia deal flow in China have tempted Korean firm Shin & Kim to launch a second China office in Shanghai, four years after its debut in Beijing.

韩国世宗律师事务所近日在上海设立了其第二间中国代表处，从而成为在上海设有代表处的第四家韩国律所。

Korean firm Shin & Kim has opened another office in China four years after its debut in Beijing. In addition, the firm has merged with real estate firm Evergreen Law Group.

Korean heavyweights Kim & Chang and Bae Kim & Lee have helped LG Household & Health Care acquire cosmetics brand The Face Shop Korea for US$363m.

Korean law firm Shin & Kim has been appointed to advise on the sale of troubled automaker Ssangyong Motors.

ALB reports from Seoul on a legal services market that has recovered

A number of new measures intended to revamp and improve Korea’s legal industry have initiated debate among those working in the profession.

Demand for lawyers specialising in international arbitration and antitrust matters in Korea is likely to increase as the legal market opens up to foreign firms and international arbitration gains more ground in the country.

Now that the dust has settled over the announcement of the ALB Hong Kong Law Awards winners, one thing has become clear: players right through the ranks of Hong Kong’s legal services industry still managed to record another fantastic year of landmark transactions.

Korea looks set to finally open its doors to foreign law firms but international firms remain adamant that this won’t affect their Korean strategies. ALB investigates

At least seven Asian firms have been listed among the top global arbitrations firms this year.

The votes are in, the numbers crunched, the data weighted, collated and tallied. And the results have given some interesting findings.

由《亚洲法律杂志》策划并组织的２００９年度亚太地区以及中东地区法律市场最佳雇主的调查活动于近日圆满结束。在中国区，十家国内和国际著名律师事务所脱颖而出，被业内人士评选为本年度“最佳雇主”。

Mergermarket has responded to comments published in ALB that there are considerable differences between its latest M&A deal count for Freehills and Mallesons, when compared to figures also recently released by Bloomberg.

There appears to be some contradiction in the latest Q3 M&A league tables released by Mergermarket and Bloomberg.

On the cusp of a possible opening to foreign competition, Korea's top law firms have come down with a bout of wanderlust. Following the lead of an outbound client base, they are setting up a growing network of offices overseas. Ben Abbott reports.