[Special Roundtable_Kim Hyun-jong] [Cover Story] Special Roundtable on 'K-Legal's Frontier', Legal Times, February 2025

You can check out the contents of the special discussion held by Legal Times with Good Key CEO Kim Hyeon-jong below.

Legal Times

"Now is a good time to go overseas, if you knock on the door, you will be led."

In this global era, Korean lawyers are working all over the world and leading the overseas expansion of K-Legal. The number of Korean lawyers working as foreign lawyers in overseas offices of Korean law firms, overseas branches of Korean companies, and even in the headquarters of foreign law firms is increasing, and there are also successful cases of Korean lawyers who have successfully established offices in foreign countries. Although they are not as noticeable as K-Pop, Korean lawyers are often stationed in major cities around the world where Korean companies are advancing, playing a role in providing legal support. As a New Year's project, Legal Times invited six lawyers from Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, New York, Sydney, and Seoul who help Korean companies advance overseas, foreign investors invest in Korea, and cross-border transactions and dispute resolution, and held a discussion on the topic of 'K-Legal's Frontier Expanding Overseas'. This project aims to highlight the activities of pioneers who have turned their eyes to overseas early and provide role models for the many young Korean lawyers who dream of advancing into the global market.

Hong Kong and British lawyers also attended

The special symposium was held on January 23rd, before the Lunar New Year holiday, in the conference room of Yulchon Law Firm located in Parnas Tower in Samseong-dong, Seoul. The symposium was possible because several lawyers were visiting Seoul for client seminars and client visits. Some lawyers flew to Seoul to attend the symposium. The main characters attending the symposium are Hong Kong lawyer Park Wan-ki, who is practicing as a barrister in Hong Kong; lawyer Kim Mi-jung (40th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute) who is in charge of the Korea desk of Singaporean law firm TSMP Law Corporation; lawyer Kim Hyeon-jong (39th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute) who is practicing in Dubai; lawyer Jeong Kyeong-hwa (39th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, New York State Bar) who is affiliated with the New York office of Covington & Burling, which also has an office in Seoul; lawyer Cho Ok-ah (41st class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute) who is affiliated with the Sydney office of Australian law firm H&H Lawyers; and British lawyer Park Ki-jung who is an international construction specialist who is currently working at Yulchon Law Firm after working at a British law firm in London. The moderator was Legal Times Editor-in-Chief Kim Jin-won.

리걸타임즈가 신년기획으로 전 세계에서 활동하며 K-Legal의 해외진출을 이끌고 있는 6명의 변호사를 초청해 한국변호사의 해외진출을 주제로 특별좌담회를 열었다. 좌담회에 참석한 6명의 변호사가 멀리 롯데서울타워를 배경으로 포즈를 취했다.

◇Society = First, please introduce yourself and your law firm.

◇Jeong Kyung-hwa = After graduating from the 39th Judicial Research and Training Institute, I worked at Pacific Law Firm for about 10 years and am currently working as an Of Counsel, which is similar to an Income Partner at other law firms, in the International Arbitration Team of Covington & Burling, the oldest and largest law firm in Washington, D.C. I joined in early 2020 and have been working there for 5 years. Since Covington works as one firm, I have fun working on cases with Covington colleagues in other offices that have international arbitration teams, such as the Dubai, London, New York, and Washington, D.C. offices. I have been working only on international arbitration since my days at Pacific Law Firm, and it has been 15 years.

◇Park Wan-ki = He is working as a trial lawyer in Hong Kong. His main areas of work are Hong Kong litigation, international arbitration, and Hong Kong law consulting. He has been consulting on Hong Kong law since 2017, mainly in relation to virtual assets and digital assets, which have been receiving a lot of attention in the United States since President Trump was re-elected. It seems that there has been some movement since the end of last year.

Conducting civil litigation including commercial fraud

Litigation in Hong Kong is mainly civil litigation. Recently, the cases that have been particularly frequent include commercial fraud, including cases related to virtual assets, shareholder litigation, post-M&A disputes, and cases related to private equity investment. We handle a variety of cases. In addition to civil cases, we sometimes handle criminal cases, and for international arbitration cases, we mainly handle Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (HKIAC) cases, but we also handle ICC cases, Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC) cases, and Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB) cases.

◇Kim Mi-jeong = A Korean lawyer who passed the 49th bar exam and completed the 40th Judicial Research and Training Institute. After graduating from the training institute, she joined Hwawoo Law Firm and worked there for about 12 years. In 2020, she was promoted to partner at Hwawoo and worked there as a partner. While at Hwawoo, she mainly performed work related to fair trade. The largest case she handled at Hwawoo was the case of Qualcomm's abuse of market dominance, which resulted in a fine of 1.3 trillion won, the largest in the history of fair trade. (Hwawoo Law Firm represented Qualcomm in this case).

Korea Desk opened 3 years ago

In December 2021, I joined TSMP, one of Singapore’s major law firms, and I am now the head of TSMP Korea Desk, which opened later that year. TSMP is a joint stock company under Singapore law, where partners receive shares. The Korea Desk is now in its fifth year, and in recognition of its performance, I received shares and became an equity partner at the beginning of this year.

The main work that the Korea Desk does includes international arbitration, in which we represent many Korean construction companies; resolution of disputes with the Singapore Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport related to infrastructure, transportation, railway and subway construction projects that many Korean construction companies are doing in Singapore; wealth management consulting, and M&A consulting, which have been in high demand recently.

Cryptocurrency-related consulting used to be active, but as regulations in Singapore increased, the cryptocurrency market in Singapore shrank somewhat after 2022 and 2023.

As a Korea desk officer, I handle all aspects of the process, from customer discovery at the front end, to sales generation, and then customer management. In cases such as fair trade cases, which are my specialty, I also directly work with Singaporean lawyers on the cases.

◇Kim Hyeon-jong = He passed the 47th bar exam and entered the Judicial Research and Training Institute as the 37th class, but he ended up completing the course as the 39th class after serving in the military.

After graduating from the Judicial Research and Training Institute in 2010, he immediately began his Middle East experience as the head of the legal department of LG Electronics’ Middle East and Africa regional headquarters. He was an in-house lawyer in charge of 79 countries in the Middle East and Africa, and worked like a salesman until 2015. He worked in about 34 countries until 2015. He then served as the head of the Dubai office of Pacific Law Firm, which opened in the first half of 2015, and became independent in 2017.

Currently, as a co-CEO of the law firm Ji-eum, headquartered in Seoul, I am working locally in Dubai with the representative attorney dispatched to Dubai. In particular, I am focusing on managing the three markets of Dubai, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, and Tashkent in Uzbekistan. Tashkent was started last year to develop the CIS region and Central Asia region, leveraging my experience in the Middle East and Africa.

I come to Korea for about four months every quarter to manage customers and run the Seoul office, and for the remaining eight months, I fly to neighboring countries with Dubai as my base camp to provide consulting.

There are many agency disputes.

We do a lot of consulting for large corporations or the government. The most common work is agency disputes. In countries where industry is not developed, there are many disputes related to distributorships, dealerships, and agencyships, and the scale is quite large. As Korean companies convert businesses that were previously conducted through local agents into their own businesses, disputes such as termination lawsuits and compensation lawsuits due to the abolition of agents are raised. These cases are often resolved through the country's mediation system or local courts rather than international arbitration. This is because agency lawsuits and dealership lawsuits in these countries are mostly recognized as domestic jurisdiction and exclusive jurisdiction. We mainly provide consulting related to localization of Korean companies in the Middle East, and investment and advancement of Korean companies into the Middle East, Africa, and CIS regions.

One more thing to say, I have recently been heavily involved in business development, leveraging my many years of experience as a lawyer. For example, in consulting for overseas expansion of Korean companies, especially small and medium-sized companies, the most important thing is to generate sales locally. So, using the network I have built in the past, I am simply acting as an intermediary to help Korean companies advance their good products into the Middle East and Africa. Of course, I do not receive intermediary fees, but legal consulting fees. Rather than passively accepting cases as a law firm, I create work and receive consulting fees for M&A or joint ventures that become the client’s business.

◇Jo Ok-ah = You are truly a frontier city.

◇Park Wan-ki = A new ecosystem was created.

◇Kim Mi-jeong = It seems like you have a business mind in addition to a legal mind.

My nickname is 'the lawyer specializing in remote areas'

◇Kim Hyun-jong = I think that's important. I started my career as an in-house lawyer overseas, not in Korea, and learned a lot from the company. I didn't have time to let go of my wild side. While I was overseas, I wore the clothes of a global player called LG Electronics and flew around the Middle East and Africa, working mainly with businesspeople. I think the network I made back then became the foundation for my current business. My nickname is 'Remote Area Specialist Lawyer.'

왼쪽부터 정경화, 박완기, 김미정 변호사

◇Jo Ok-ah = When you say 'Oji', the dictionary definition is a rough and inaccessible area that is not well known, but it is understood as an expression that makes you hesitate a little when you say that you know about a place like Saudi Arabia or Dubai but actually have to go there to live or work there.

'The company itself is the Korea Desk'

I am attorney Cho Ok-ah, a graduate of the 41st Judicial Research and Training Institute. I am from Sydney. I work at H&H Lawyers, an Australian law firm established in 1996. It is a local firm, and there are two representative lawyers, a Korean lawyer and a Japanese lawyer, so it can be considered an Asian-focused law firm in Australia. I work as a foreign lawyer at H&H Lawyers. There has been a lot of talk about the Korea desk, but H&H Lawyers has three teams: a Japanese team, a Chinese team, and a Korean team. However, it feels like the company itself is a Korea desk because there are so many Korean cases and many Korean lawyers working there.

H&H Lawyers is almost the only Korean law firm in Australia, and it is large and handles various types of corporate consulting. It focuses on corporate law in particular, and it provides consulting services to Korean companies that are advancing into Australia. Many Korean companies are advancing into the market due to mine development, infrastructure investment, and recently, Hyundai Rotem is developing a subway construction project in Sydney called Metro. This is also creating a lot of jobs. H&H Lawyers provides consulting services related to related investments and JVs, but it also provides consulting services related to human resources and labor issues that are derived from these.

I am almost the only Korean lawyer working in Australia, and I am encouraged by the fact that H&H Lawyers has been receiving many requests for advice and inquiries related to Korean law since last year. From Australia’s perspective, inbound work has decreased, but since last year, outbound work such as Australian companies’ investments in Korea has been increasing.

Personally, my husband was posted to Australia in 2019, so I went there. Many of the other people who attended today's symposium also went abroad in 2019 and 2020, and I think that was the time when I went abroad the most. At first, I thought about staying in Australia only while my husband was stationed there and then returning, but now that I'm gradually becoming more interested in my work and the demand for consulting related to Korea has increased, I'm leaning more toward focusing more on Australia and living there, and I'm going to try harder.

◇Park Ki-jung=Everyone is out and about doing activities, but I came in the opposite direction. In that sense, I may not seem like a good fit for today's discussion, but I think I would be. I am a British lawyer, and while working at a British law firm, I mainly handled international disputes related to construction, international arbitration, etc., and then I joined Yulchon about 8 years ago.

Joined Yulchon after working at a British law firm

Yulchon's main work is construction disputes related to construction projects overseas carried out by Korean companies. We help with everything from initial claim consulting to mediation and dispute resolution. We also help with such matters when foreign investment companies come to Korea to build factories or buildings. Since the year before last, Yulchon has been handling a lot of work related to nuclear power plants, and we are supporting related work to ensure that there are no problems with the overseas export of nuclear power plants.

◇ Society = After listening to the stories of the six people, they are all the main characters of K-Legal who have succeeded in advancing overseas. Also, through self-introduction, I think they explained well about their roles in overseas locations. This time, I would like to ask for your opinion on the secret to success in advancing overseas and your know-how for success.

◇Cho Ok-ah = First of all, I want to say that Korean lawyers should be experts in Korean law. Even if I work in Australia and help with issues related to Korea, I cannot give up my actual base and my Korean lawyer license.

Just because you are in Australia doesn't mean you can advise on Australian law, so if you are a Korean lawyer who dreams of going overseas, you should first develop expertise in Korean law. Even though the job market in Korea is difficult, you should still go through some Korean corporate law or Korean litigation, and at least have an understanding of Korean law and the Korean legal market for at least three years before you can shine when you go overseas. Even if you are in Australia, there are cases related to Korean courts, and you should know how Korean courts work.

I too worked as an in-house lawyer for a company in Korea for nearly 10 years before moving overseas. I think it would be a good idea to first develop my qualifications and expertise in the Korean market, and then once that has matured, I can look overseas.

◇Park Wan-ki = In my case, I can't dare say that I've succeeded, and I should say that it's still in progress. I remember my parents always telling me to take a path that no one else has taken since I was little. It seems that the lawyers here are all practicing by maximizing the value of rarity.

I approach it from the perspective of finding out what I think is valuable, conducting market research to figure out and analyze what the market thinks is valuable, and then figuring out how I can bring out what is valuable in that market and how I can provide that service.

I chose Hong Kong because I wanted to do something different overseas, like dispute resolution, after finishing my military service in Korea in July 2010. I decided to go there after thinking about where to do it. The hubs of arbitration were traditionally London and Paris, but they were moving to Hong Kong and Singapore. Since there were so many big deals in Asia, disputes naturally occurred when there were many deals, and the European economy was shrinking significantly. So I thought it would be good to practice in Asia and do international arbitration, and I ended up going to Hong Kong. I thought that if I went to Hong Kong and did international arbitration, I would be able to become someone who took a path that others did not take. At that time, there were already one or two Korean lawyers who were doing arbitration in Hong Kong, but I didn’t know about it. Also, my parents on both sides of my family were in Korea, so I chose Hong Kong because it was relatively close to Korea.

'You've lost some of your wildness.'

I really like the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and I always tell myself, “Don’t be afraid to be an outlier.” At the end of last year, he told me, “You’ve lost some of your wildness.” I want to continue to be an outlier, and I want to keep my wildness.

◇Society = I understand that international arbitration can also be done by a solicitor. I also understand that Attorney Park Wan-ki does a lot of work related to enforcement.

◇Park Wan-ki = International arbitration can also be done by a solicitor. However, only a barrister can argue in a Hong Kong court. When the arbitration is over, an arbitration award is issued, and while it is important to receive the award, it is more important to enforce it and retrieve damages, etc. We also perform enforcement work related to international arbitration, work related to enforcing foreign judgments in Hong Kong, and work to defend enforcement.

◇Jeong Kyung-hwa = When giving advice to juniors, I often say, "You have to know yourself first." I think the paths of those who attended today's discussion were very diverse. It depends on whether you became a lawyer in Korea or abroad, where you grew up, and what kind of environment you had as a child, but the most important thing is to first realize what makes you the happiest. In my case, I think I thought a lot about things like, "When does my heart beat?" and "Is this something I can really do with passion?"

◇왼쪽부터 조옥아, 김현종, 박기정 변호사

Like Attorney Park Wan-ki, I have thought a lot about taking a path that others have not taken since I was young. I think it was also influenced by my parents. There is a saying that goes, “The sky is the limit.”

I applied to be an international arbitration lawyer and worked at a Korean law firm and then an American law firm. You might think that Anglo-American lawyers are major players in British and American law firms, but since I was trained as a Korean lawyer, I can tell you that my opinions have much more impact than theirs in international disputes that use continental law as the governing law. In the case of international arbitration, English law, New York State law, and Delaware law have traditionally been used as the governing law, but the number of cases that use continental law as the governing law is increasing. The Middle East, where Attorney Kim Hyun-jong works, is also a legal system that combines continental law with Sharia law.

When I was handling various dispute cases such as construction disputes related to Middle Eastern law, I was educated and trained hard in the Pandecten system of continental law countries, so it was very helpful. Of course, I also handle many cases related to Anglo-American law, but I want to tell my juniors that what we have is not a minus, not a weakness, but an advantage.

English is a means

Being in a foreign country, there is bound to be a barrier called English, but I think English is just a tool. I think the most important thing as a lawyer is knowledge of the law, accurate understanding of the law, accurate analysis of the case, and application of the law.

Let me say it again, the most important thing is how well I can analyze the case from a legal perspective, how I can give the client the best advice, and how well I can argue the case to win the case. In fact, that requires having an eye for the case, understanding the issue well, and understanding people well. So I think it's important to work hard with the mindset of 'what we have is our limit' and 'this could be an advantage'.

The path that others have not taken is just one example, and the lawyers here are just one example, and there are so many different paths. The path that is right for each person will be different. As lawyer Kim Hyun-jong said, some people go wild, others take a traditional course, and it will all be different depending on the circumstances that each person has. If you try what you want, you will eventually find the path that is right for you, and you will also pioneer it. There is a path, but you do not find it, but you create it.

◇Park Ki-jung = I think that the process of studying at a Korean law school in the continental law system, studying Korean law, and passing the exam to become a lawyer is very helpful in forming a legal mindset.

I personally graduated from law school in Korea, studied, and then studied foreign law again with that. I don't think I could have done it without that. Attorney Jeong said earlier, "The sky is the limit," and I think studying Korean law will be a great help for young lawyers in Korea to go abroad. I really agree because I have also experienced it.

◇Jeong Kyung-hwa = I think Korea's education system is really great. You have to have the Pandekten system firmly in your head, that is, you have to understand how the law flows starting from Roman law, so that you can properly understand when an example comes up. Professors emphasize the legal mind in every lecture, and Korea's law education system based on the Pandekten system is very important.

"Highly regulated legal market"

◇Cho Ok-ah = Korea's education system is like that, and there are many excellent people if you look at each individual, but this may be a little different, but institutionally, I think the Korean legal market is a little too regulated. When talented young Koreans who became lawyers go overseas or when foreign law firms come into Korea, there are actually too many regulations. I personally think that we need to loosen up some of the regulations so that employment at foreign law firms in Korea can be more free and excellent talents can be utilized.

◇Jeong Kyung-hwa = As Attorney Cho said, when I go out of the official, I have to go as a New York lawyer. I can't go as a Korean lawyer. Because there is a foreign legal consultant system here, American law firms, British law firms, or foreign law firms cannot hire Korean lawyers in Korea, and in fact, these are huge disadvantages.

◇Society = I understand that Attorney Jeong, Attorney Cho, and Attorney Kim of TSMP do not provide legal advice on Korean law at their respective law firms.

◇Kim Mi-jung = Officially, yes. Because we are a major Singapore law firm, our corporate insurance coverage is limited to consulting on Singapore law. It is not legally possible. Also, this may be our firm's strategic position, but in fact, we are the only Korea desk, so there is a limit to what we can do alone. We do not provide consulting on Korean law, and we form alliances with Korean law firms for consulting on Korean law.

◇ Society = I don't provide legal advice on Korean law, but the lawyers who attended today's discussion seem to be very active. In the case of lawyer Kim Mi-jeong, she seems to play a huge role in both outbound and inbound, such as Korean companies' advancement into Southeast Asia, including Singapore, and Singaporean or global clients' advancement into Korea. Please tell me why the role of Korean lawyers and Korean lawyers working as foreign lawyers at foreign law firms is important, and how it is possible.

◇Kim Mi-jeong = As Attorney Cho mentioned earlier, I also want to emphasize that after graduating from law school, getting a lawyer's license, and practicing for a certain period of time, there comes a point where it doesn't really matter which country you are a lawyer in. Of course, there may be limitations to your actual work, but I think it's important to have a business mind that accurately reads the needs of customers, as Attorney Kim Hyeon-jong said.

I would like to talk to my juniors in two stages. I joined a Singaporean law firm and settled in very well in just three years. The firm also recognized me and I was recently promoted to partner. As for the background, as you mentioned earlier, I think the first thing that helped me was the rigorous training I received at the Korean Law School and the Judicial Research and Training Institute. Next, I gained experience by handling various cases at a large Korean law firm for 12 years. All that time will be a great help to me no matter which jurisdiction I go to in the future, whether it be Dubai, England, Australia, or New York.

"You should be able to tell the difference between English and American law"

I think that Korean lawyers should first be able to tell their clients how Korean law works, then how the continental legal system works, and at least what the differences are from Anglo-American law. In the case of Singapore, the legal market is considered a strategic business of the country, so the system is constantly changing and many new judicial systems are being introduced, but when you just tell them that, Korean clients who are familiar with the Korean legal system are often confused. So if you can point that out from the perspective of Korean law, I think it will be a very important role for Korean lawyers.

◇왼쪽부터 좌담회에 참석한 정경화, 박완기, 김미정, 김현종, 조옥아, 박기정 변호사. 좌담회는 서울 삼성동의 파르나스타워에 위치한 법무법인 율촌 회의실에서 진행되었다.

Second, there is a business culture unique to Korean companies. Depending on how well they understand the reporting system, reporting culture, and decision-making structure that operates within the company, lawyers can provide the best business to their clients in a short period of time.

Singaporean lawyers sometimes do not understand why large Korean companies make such decisions. Sometimes they do not know why client companies make such demands. However, Korean lawyers know everything. They know that if they include this point, the client company will be much more efficient in carrying out its business or project. It is important to be legally right or wrong, but that is basic. In order to become a more successful lawyer, you must accurately read the needs of the company and the needs of the client.

Whether it's a law firm, a court, a prosecutor's office, or an in-house position, I think that having legal experience in Korea will definitely be an advantage when going abroad.

◇Park Wan-ki = Korean clients and all clients ultimately want to analyze and resolve legal issues. So, when you think about it from a higher level, it doesn’t really matter what kind of lawyer license you have. You just need to figure out what the issue is, analyze it, and then provide a solution to resolve it. So, it doesn’t really matter to the client who you work with. Whether it’s a British lawyer, a Korean lawyer, a New York lawyer, or a Hong Kong lawyer, as long as they are good at solving problems, that’s fine.

And in terms of output, Korean clients and large corporations have to report to the Korean headquarters, so it is important to write good reports so that they can easily report.

◇Jeong Kyung-hwa = As you said, the best email is the one that forwards the email I wrote. The customer probably wants that kind of reporting system in his email the most.

◇Kim Hyun-jong = In Korean companies, training to write reports is not just a waste of time. It is a process of organizing thoughts.

◇Kim Mi-jeong = When you look at reports from Korean companies, compressing them into one page is almost an art form. Lawyers tend to write long reports, so it's hard for them to do.

◇ Society = Now, finally, we will each take turns giving a closing comment. Please give us some tips for K-Legal’s successful overseas expansion.

◇Kim Hyun-jong = I established my outlook on life 15 years ago when I went abroad. I am a person who lives by the value of diaspora as my life motto. There are people who raise cattle and then there are people who go out and work. Of course, as I said before, I think it can vary greatly depending on the characteristics of the person. There are many people who struggle in the courts and prosecution, but thankfully, it seems that we have entered an era where many people can go out. The national power and national prestige of the Republic of Korea have reached a level where they can feed themselves even when they go abroad. As our country enters the ranks of advanced countries, projects utilizing OECD, ODA funds, and the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) are increasing, and lawyers should follow suit and work together. Of course, each person is different, so they can do it according to their own characteristics.

"Communication with ethics is important"

From a business perspective, communication skills are very important, but the thing that our lawyers are worst at is communication. What I want to ask my juniors is that although having a business mind is good, in order to communicate well, you must have ethics, a sense of ethics. These days, there are many young lawyers who act very aggressively, but it seems that there are cases where ethics are a little lacking. My opinion is that you should communicate well, and I hope that ethics are not missing from the core.

◇Park Ki-jung = Before becoming a lawyer, I was working at a large company when I was transferred to Hong Kong, and I first went there in 1999. At that time, I didn't know much about Korea. However, as time passed, our country's status has risen significantly. In terms of lawyers' advancement overseas, I think the pioneer era is a little over, and I think this is a really good opportunity. There is an African proverb that says, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." I think our generation studied hard to go fast and did so with a pioneering spirit. Now, I think we need to go further. We can stick together and help our juniors go forward, and there are many ways, so I think we need to think about going together. It's time to help, teach, and go together if we can.

"If you work hard, opportunities will come."

◇Jo Ok-ah = If you want to go together, you have to go with the people you want to go with. Communication skills are really important. And just like Steve Jobs said in his Stanford commencement speech, 'Connecting the Dots (there are no useless coincidences in life),' if you do your best in your current position, work hard, and have many connections with good people, those dots will all come together and opportunities will continue to come. Right now, I'm sitting here, but in two or three years, I might be somewhere else. You never know. You really can't know what the future holds for a person. I think it's important to always be humble and work hard.

◇Park Wan-ki = As Attorney Cho said, no one knows what we will be doing in five years. That is why I want to tell the attorneys here that rather than saying, "You have to do it that way," it would be better to find a way to create your own value. Most people who become attorneys in Korea are the top students in their school. It may be the same in Korea, but when you go to other regions or overseas, you may not be able to take on challenges because you are afraid of not being able to be the top. Of course, you don't need to be afraid. Once you challenge yourself and pioneer, you can become the best. You need to be excellent and fierce, but if you say from the beginning that you have to be the best and that you won't start if you can't, it will be difficult to create more value.

◇Kim Hyun-jong = First of all, it is important to start. You can know whether you should start or not. People who are too good at calculating have low wildness. You should calculate appropriately and throw boldly. The reality is that there were not many people who threw, but didn't everyone get results by throwing like that?

"Korea Desk timing is good"

◇Kim Mi-jung = I think it is a very good time for Korean lawyers to seek overseas expansion. Even for TSMP Korea Desk, we were the first major Singapore law firm to open a Korea Desk, and the timing was perfect. It was a time when many Korean companies were expanding overseas. In fact, if there was no such background, if there was no overall global economic trend such as K-Pop that swept the world, it would not be easy for an individual to go against it no matter how excellent they are. In that sense, it is a good time for juniors to advance overseas. If you really knock on the door, you will be led somewhere.

◇Jeong Kyung-hwa= You may think, “Can I do this?” “Can I achieve the dream I want?” But in fact, youth itself is the greatest asset. If you try and it doesn’t work out, you can try something else. There are no limits.

Organized by = Legal Times Reporter Eunjae Lee ( eunjae@legaltimes.co.kr )