Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP announced today that it plans to open an office in Seoul, Korea as soon as practicable in 2012. Partner Youngjin Sohn will relocate to Seoul, together with several associates from the Firm’s Hong Kong office, where the Firm’s Korea team is currently located.
The Firm’s announcement follows the recent ratification of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which allows U.S. law firms to establish offices in Korea.
“Simpson Thacher has been active on Korea-related transactions since the 1990s and has built a leading practice in the Korean legal services market,” said Pete Ruegger, Chairman of the Firm’s Executive Committee. “Opening an office in Seoul reflects our Firm’s continued commitment to the Korean market and to our clients who are active in the region.”
Jin Hyuk Park, who leads the Firm’s Korea team said, “For many years, we have represented a variety of clients, including Korean and other international corporations, banks and financial institutions, as well as Korean sovereign entities, in connection with their prominent transactions in Korea. By offering the convenience of our local presence with full access to Simpson Thacher’s worldwide resources on a fully integrated basis, we can continue to provide the highest level of legal expertise and client service in Korea and across Asia.”
“Our Korea team consists of multi-lingual attorneys with years of experience in Korea,” added Youngjin Sohn, who will head the Seoul office. “We are pleased to build on this experience by combining the convenience of a physical location in Korea with our in-depth knowledge of local practice and culture. Our Seoul office will also provide our clients with access to the Firm’s positive inter-office synergies. For example, we can fully leverage our Hong Kong office’s prominent Hong Kong law practice on matters such as Hong Kong IPOs.”
Simpson Thacher’s Korea practice is active in capital markets, mergers and acquisitions and private equity investments, both public and private, inbound and outbound. The practice is well-balanced in providing legal services to issuers and underwriters, purchasers, sellers, lenders and financial and strategic investors alike. The Firm is also active in litigation and other dispute resolution matters on behalf of Korean and other clients in their matters involving Korea. The Firm’s Korea practice will continue to focus on capital markets, mergers and acquisitions and private equity investments as well as dispute resolutions, intellectual properties, antitrust and other investigation and litigation-related areas.
The Firm’s Korea team currently consists of ten lawyers, all of whom are completely bilingual in Korean and English and fully dedicated to work on Korean transactions. The Firm also has about twenty Korean-speaking lawyers in New York. Simpson Thacher’s Korea team is well-versed in the corporate culture and business practices in Korea. Both of the Firm’s Korean partners have been active on Korean transactions for well over a decade.
The Firm’s recent engagements in Korea include:
- Representation of KKR in its acquisition of Oriental Brewery, Anheuser Busch InBev’s Korean business. The $1.8 billion acquisition marked KKR’s first investment in Korea and the largest Asian and the second largest global private equity deal since the global financial crisis.
- Representation of Dongwon Enterprise in its acquisition of the StarKist seafood brand business unit from Del Monte.
- Representation of Hanwha Group in a successful arbitration of disputes with Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation in connection with the sale and purchase of Korea Life Insurance, which was the largest international arbitration involving a Korean company.
- Representation of Ingersoll-Rand in its sale of its Bobcat business unit to Doosan Infracore for approximately $4.9 billion.
- Representation of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and BoA Merrill Lynch in connection with Samsung Life Insurance’s $4.4 billion IPO, the largest ever IPO by a Korean company. Samsung Life, a flagship company of Samsung Group, has been the largest life insurance company in Korea since the 1960s.
- Representation of Korea Life Insurance in its approximately $1.6 billion IPO, the second largest IPO by a Korean company on the Korea Exchange.
- Representation of the lead managers in the Republic of Korea’s $3 billion dual tranche global bond offering.
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