DR & AJU LLC

Established in a merger between Daeryook and AJU in 2009, DR & AJU LLC is a leading full-service law firm in South Korea. Quick to adapt to legal trends and known for its creative and practical solutions to address rapidly evolving legal needs, DR & AJU’s is recognized as one of the most innovative, responsive, and client-oriented law firms in the Korean legal industry.

The firm draws on the collective experience and expertise of over 250 Korean and foreign attorneys and 130 qualified experts and highly specialized advisors to provide effective legal and consulting services on a comprehensive range of practice areas. The firm especially shows strong performance in tax, antitrust and competition, corporate restructuring and insolvency/bankruptcy, finance, energy and infrastructure, and elections, with experienced staff and prominent practitioners leading each practice area, including new recruits, Mr Sung Hee HAN, a former commissioner of the National Tax Service with experience as the director general of the Investigation Bureau and International Tax Bureau; Mr Young Ku LEE, a former chief judge and a highly renowned attorney in the field of restructuring and insolvency.

As the first major Korean law firm to establish a subsidiary office in Washington D.C., DR & AJU also works closely with D&A Advisory, Inc., to provide timely global risk and security advisory to its clients.

Practice groups
Antitrust and competition: DR & AJU's antitrust and competition practice Group comprises experienced lawyers and experts who have worked at the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), including the former vice chairman of the KFTC, who can provide an insider's perspective regarding government policies. The practice group provides customized one-stop services that cover all stages of dispute resolution, including responding to on-site investigations by the KFTC, proposing the most effective risk management plan for legal violations, and litigation against complaints, but specializes in establishing precautionary processes. With a comprehensive understanding of various industries, the practice group listens to clients' concerns and offers insightful and optimal solutions, making remarkable achievements in the meantime.

General civil disputes: DR & AJU's civil litigation practice group provides a full range of dispute resolution services involving virtually all types of civil litigation and arbitration, striving to secure clients' rights by making strategic decisions based on extensive field experience.

International practice: DR & AJU's international practice group continuously expands in its role as experts in inbound and outbound international transactions to provide up-to-date and effective legal solutions.

Energy and infrastructure: DR & AJU's energy and infrastructure practice group provides experienced and comprehensive legal advice to clients in the energy sector, such as renewable energy, gas, oilfield, mineral, and resource development, in order to satisfy the clients' global endeavors in energy projects.

Tax: DR & AJU’s tax practice group provides a full range of tax-related legal advisory services, such as national tax, local tax, international tax, and customs, with the nation's eminent tax experts active in various fields with many years of practical experience, encompassing competent lawyers and certified public accountants who worked at the National Tax Service, Korea Customs Service, and Tax Tribunal.

Africa practice: DR & AJU's Africa practice group is led by a South African partner and works closely with the South African Chamber of Commerce in Korea. The group has firmly distinguished itself as the single most esteemed group of its practice in Korea. In particular, DR & AJU signed an MOU with the statutory institution Korea-Africa Foundation under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to jointly support domestic companies seeking expansion into Africa. The group advises public, private, and multinational companies and joint ventures from African countries expanding into the Korean market and from Korea into the South African and Sub-Saharan African region. Working closely with its public and private network in Africa and delegations in Korea, the group covers investment, infrastructure and energy projects, mining, disputes, project development and finance, construction, M&A, PE, technology, TMT, IP & patents, and general trade and logistics.

Shipping and aviation: DR & AJU's renowned shipping and aviation practice group offers a full range of professional services to resolve legal disputes related to B/L and air waybills; L/C transactions; traditional maritime accidents such as ship collision, fire, and sinking; loss or damage in international transport; charter contracts; ship constructions; bankruptcy of shipping/shipbuilding companies; ship financing and port affairs; and water leisure crafts. The team comprises specialized professionals with extensive experience in their fields, including a former navigation officer, and was officially appointed the sole domestic legal advisory group for the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries in 2019.

Corporate finance and restructuring : DR & AJU's Corporate Finance and Restructuring Practice Group with expertise in M&A practice has an outstanding history of credentials of successfully restructuring Korea's major companies from different industries, including airline, automobile, construction, and golf clubs.

Criminal defense litigation: DR & AJU's criminal litigation practice group helps our clients with highly complex criminal defense issues, including investigations, white-collar matters, and election and government regulation-related allegations.

Notable achievements: DR & AJU spent a particularly remarkable year in 2023 after consolidating its total capacity through the successful internal integration last year with a two-fold increase in the number of its Korean lawyers and a growth rate of 21.1%, which was the highest of the top ten Korean law firms. Some of its achievements are:

• Became the first Korean major law firm to provide proxy advisory services with the launch of the AJU Research Institute of Corporate Management in 2022. As of 2023, DR & AJU advised on 1,402 matters for the shareholder meetings of 226 listed companies.
• Established the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (SAPA) Compliance Certification, which is a certification system that verifies whether a company’s safety and health management system complies with regulations and supports companies in meeting such requirements. DR & AJU has provided certification services to a total of 110 companies since the service was launched last December.
• Became the first Korean law firm to introduce and actively utilize an AI legal search and analysis solution for legal research, establishing a legal resource database that allows attorneys to quickly and efficiently find relevant documents to provide clients with quality advisory and representation services.
• Signed an MOU with Nexus AI for the joint development and operation of an AI legal consultation chatbot. DR & AJU is currently working on building a dataset of legal advisory for the development of this Large Language Model (LLM) based program to provide free legal services to the public.
• Launched the Election Law Practice Group, comprised of former presiding judges of the Election Department at Seoul Central District Court. This practice group not only provides customized legal services for various cases, such as response to investigations by the National Election Commission or legal representation in criminal investigations and trials, but it also offers devoted legal consulting for election campaign candidates.
• Established the Corporate Data Protection Center, a center dedicated to preventing industrial information leakage and ensuring the protection of corporate technology and information security. Based on its strategic partnership with the domestic patent law firm DAE-A Intellectual Property Consulting, DR & AJU also plans to implement a one-stop legal service for Patent, Trademark, and IP consulting.
• First major Korean law firm to create a metaverse youth counselling center that provides free legal support to victims of school violence via 1:1 direct message.