With the historic Hwanggungu shrine as the backdrop and the room immaculately lit in the midday sun, the ballroom at the Westin Josun Seoul Hotel began receiving guests for The Legal 500’s first-ever South Korea GC Summit, a long-overdue venture given the huge significance of the Republic of Korea’s economy, legal scene and global business reach. 

Along with our event partners, we were delighted to welcome over 100 GCs and in-house lawyers. A wide group was in attendance, representing the large corporations that are global household names, to smaller startup companies, and everything in between; a truly representative gathering that highlighted the diverse and vibrant talent pool that makes up the Korean in-house legal ecosystem.  

 After welcoming the guests, master of ceremonies Joe Boswell of The Legal 500 introduced our keynote speaker Jinny Suh of McKinsey and company who outlined some of the key themes affecting Korean in-house counsel in her charismatic style.   

We then moved on to our first panel discussion, in association with Greenberg Traurig. Focusing on M&A in Korea, panellists Jang Hyuk Yeo (partner, Greenberg Traurig), Hyewon Lee (associate, Greenberg Traurig), Roger S. Chae (group general counsel, global legal compliance & audit, Hanon Systems) and In Kim (Counsel, overseas legal affairs department, Korea Investment & Securities Company) gave an expertly-crafted overview of the inbound and outbound M&A opportunities and challenges to Korean entities.  

Our second panel was another excellent discussion alongside Herbert Smith Freehills. Taking advantage of the vast experience of moderator Mike McClure KC (Head of Seoul, Foreign Legal Consultant, Herbert Smith Freehills) in the area at hand, this panel delved into the highly complex world of arbitration. Dana Kim (Partner, Herbert Smith Freehills), Dr. Peter Ruttman (General counsel, BMW Korea) and Tigran Ter-Martirosyan (Director, Accuracy) gave the audience the benefit of their diverse perspectives before the audience got involved in a robust Q&A session. 

After a coffee break, we returned for our third panel session alongside Lee & Ko. Titled ‘Recent developments and uniqueness in Korean competition law’, the panel proceeded to interrogate the topic at length, providing the audience with both practical advice and a detailed discussion. A highly diverse panel appeared for this section: Hwan Jeong of Lee & Ko, Ui Jae Lee of Veolia, Jong Youn Han of Lee & Ko, YounGyu Lee of Chubb Life and Minwoo Chae of Starbucks.  

The next session changed the pace somewhat, with a shorter ‘fireside chat’ format focused on the always popular topic of litigation. Moderated by Joe Boswell, the brave host was joined on stage by two formidably qualified individuals. From the in-house side, Citi’s Korea general counsel Hyo-Yeon Yoon and from the private practice side, Greenberg Traurig’s overall vice-chair and chair of both the Litigation Practice in New York and the Business & Regulatory Financial Services Litigation Group Richard Edlin; someone who needs no introduction to those familiar with the litigation world. Taking advantage of both of their perspectives, a highly interesting discussion ensued about how best to set up for an impending litigation, with practical insights included at all points. Edlin also treated the audience to some of the war stories he has amassed over the course of his stellar career.  

Our fourth and final panel discussion was in association with Yulchon, and featured another impressive panel: Doil Son (Head of the IP & Technology Practice, Sun Hee Kim (Partner) and Jungwoo Lee (Partner), all of Yulchon. Taking a deep dive into a topic that had already featured prominently in audience questions, AI and data, the panel managed to tackle the issue broadly and also place it in a more specific context, that of HR management. The audience responded extremely positively to this unique session and many interesting questions resulted during the Q&A portion.  

From here, the audience was invited to enjoy refreshments and Canapés as the conversation continued in the dedicated networking session that Legal 500 events have become renowned for.  

The GC Summit Korea was a huge success that surpassed the high expectations we had, both in terms of the quality of the discussions and the calibre of GCs who attended. We will return next year, when we will take on the challenging but welcome task of surpassing the already high-water mark that this event has made.   

In the meantime, we hope to have at least one more event in South Korea this year, so please keep an eye out for updates. If you would like to partner with The Legal 500 on a similar event in Korea in the future, please feel free to email me: [email protected]