Kim & Chang

Labor & Employment; Foreign Direct Investment; Mergers & Acquisitions

Deok Il Seo, who joined the firm in 2002 after a ten-year career in government, is a senior foreign attorney of Kim & Chang's Labor & Employment Practice, advising on all employment and labor-related matters. 

He concentrates his practice on cross-border transactions, mainly representing corporate clients in mergers and acquisitions, especially regarding employee benefits strategies and other human resources law issues for multinational employers. He analyzes labor and employment issues related to corporate transactions, including due diligence, “acquired rights” issues, and post-merger HR integration planning, advising on reductions-in-force and restructuring issues. He negotiates drafts, and reviews incentive compensation and executive compensation plans and documents including employment agreements, severance plans, non-compete/solicit, confidentiality and separation agreements. 

He advises clients on managing multiple-jurisdiction employment law compliance initiatives including global handbooks, codes of conduct, hotlines, HR policies, employee equity plans, expatriate and data privacy laws affecting global human resource systems.

Korean and English

Admitted to bar, New York, 2002

University of Washington, School of Law (Visiting Scholar, 2002)Harvard Law School (LL.M., 1991; Researcher, 1992)College of Law, Sungkyunkwan University (LL.B., 1989)