Professional notice
Since our last Korea country survey in early 2008, some competition practitioners in Seoul say the team at Yulchon has slipped a notch from their former position in the hierarchy of Korean competition practices. The loss of former competition head Youngjin Jung to rival Kim & Chang doesn't help.
But that opinion may be more appearance than reality, as Yulchon continued to do solid work for its international and local competition clients. The firm also continued to grow. More of a boutique than a full-service firm - it would prefer comparisons to specialists like Howrey LLP, rather than all-rounder Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer - the practice features 31 competition lawyers with decades of experience between them. Those lawyers include 2009 hires John KJ Kim, formerly of Kim & Chang, former Seoul Administrative Court justice Kum Ju Son, and Soon Sik Ju, a former KFTC standing commissioner and one of the most senior officials at the agency. The firm also promoted associate Kyoung Yeon Kim to partner. Partner Sai Ree Yun is a Who's Who nominee.
Yulchon has had a hand in most of the country's major abuse of dominance cases - typically for the complainant. For example, the firm represented AMD in the Korean part of its battle with Intel, and several complainants, including Broadcom, Texas Instruments and Sony Ericsson, in the KFTC's antitrust case against Qualcomm.
Still, the firm says about half of its billed hours are spent handling cartel cases - far more than any other area. The firm is advising clients involved in some the most complex cartel investigations, including air cargo, a paper cartel and more. Other clients include Bridgestone, Lufthansa and Samsung SDI.
Yulchon, Attorneys at Law
Yulchon is a full-service international law firm headquartered in Seoul, Korea. We take pride in our global perspective and our international reach. We strive to provide the most innovative solutions to the myriad legal challenges confronting our clients. Chambers Global calls us "one of the most respected and reliable practices in Korea."
Our antitrust team has been recognized worldwide for its expertise in representing clients in various high-profile cases. Since 2002, our antitrust team has been consistently ranked by Global Competition Review as one of the world's top 100 firms for antitrust law. In a recent survey conducted by the Chosun Ilbo, a leading daily newspaper in Korea, 19 out of 30 legal departments of Korea's largest corporations selected Yulchon as the best antitrust counsel in the nation.
Yulchon's antitrust team is known for its work on landmark cases, including successful representation of Texas Instruments, Ericsson, Broadcom, and others against Qualcomm in an abuse of market dominance case (which led to a fine of US$208 million against Qualcomm); AMD against Intel (a fine of US$30 million); and RealNetworks and Daum Communications against Microsoft (a fine of US$33 million and an order to unbundle its media player from the Windows operating system).
We handle entire spectrum of antitrust work, including:
- Abuse of Market Dominance
- M&A
- Misleading or Deceptive Labeling & Advertising Practices
- Unfair Collaborative Acts (Cartels)
- Unfair Trade Practices (Abuse of transactional position, unfair assistance, etc.)
- Legislative Advisory Work for Government Agencies
Contact us today.
Seoul
Textile Center 12F,944-31 Daechi 2-dong,
Gangnam-gu 135-713
Korea
T: +82-2-528-5200
F: +82-2-528-5228
Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City
Unit 03,4th Floor,
Kumho Asiana Plaza,
39 Le Duan St.,
Ben Nghe Ward,
Dist.1,
Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
T: +8-39110225
F: +8-39110230
Website: www.yulchon.com/ycindex.asp