As a partner in the Lease & Transportation Finance Team, Myung Hyun Ryu has advised domestic and international clients (including a number of high-profile financial institutions) on large-scale financial transactions.

Mr. Ryu's work has focused on Lease & Transportation Finance (Aircraft and Ship Financing) for major carriers in Korea. Lee & Ko is the only firm with an organized aircraft finance team and has a dominant market share in ship financing advisory. He acquired expertise on related laws and skills such as the Aviation Act and structuring of Ship/Aviation Finance. At the same time, he had exposure to diverse governing laws and business disciplines commonly required in banking advisory. He has structured various financing deals and issued securities for airline and shipping companies. In the process, he worked with numerous domestic and overseas inancial institutions and dealt with issues such as foreign exchange regulations, cross-border tax, insurance and securitization. Recently, he has also participated in updating the Korean chapter of Aircraft Finance, a world-renowned magazine for aircraft financing.

Mr. Ryu also has extensive experience related to negotiating with relevant government agencies such as MOLIT in order to attain authorizations for aviation and airport business pursuant to the Aviation Act.

In 2008, Lee & Ko's Lease & Transportation Finance Team handled a remarkable case for an airliner that needed to re-structure all of its existing finance and operating leases involving almost a half of its fleet due to a changed legal environment both in Ireland and Korea. The transaction required complex cross border structures involving parties from almost ten jurisdictions. In this complex, mega-size transaction, Mr. Ryu played a key role in solving various Korean foreign exchange as well as civil aviation regulatory issues and carefully organized documentation, thereby leading to a successful and smooth closing of the transaction.

Mr. Ryu's work as a legal advisor for a large number of major transactions, has included the following:

· Advised Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd. in the ECA backed finance lease transactions involving ① three (3) A330-300 aircraft with COFACE, ING, HSBC and KDB and ② one (1) A380-800 aircraft with ING and KDB
· Advised Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd. in the US Exim Bank guaranteed finance lease transactions involving ① one (1) B777-F aircraft with HSBC and KDB, ② two (2) B747-8F aircraft with TD Bank, JP Morgan and KDB, ③ one (1) B777-F aircraft with JP Morgan and KDB, ④ one (1) B747-8F aircraft with CACIB, Goldman Sachs and KDB, ⑤ one (1) B777-F aircraft with BNP Paribas and KDB and ⑥ one (1) B777-300ER aircraft with Citi Bank, BNK of America and KDB
· Advised Korean Air Lines in the commercial finance lease transactions involving ① one (1) A380-800 aircraft and one (1) B737-900ER with Bank of Communications, ② one (1) B777-300ER aircraft and one (1) B737-900ER aircraft with SCB and ③one A330-200E aircraft with CACIB, KfW and CIC
· Advised Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd. in the sale & lease-back transactions involving thirty four (34) spare engines with PK AirFinance
· Advised Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd. in the sale & lease-back transactions involving one (1) B737-900 Aircraft and one (1) B747-400F with ICBC, one (1) A330-300 aircraft with DVB and three (3) B777-200ER aircraft with BNPP and NATIXIS
· Advised Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd. in the secured loan transactions involving ① one (1) B777-200ER aircraft, one (1) B747-400F aircraft and three (3) B737-900 aircraft with DVB and DB, ② two (2) B737-900 aircraft, two (2) B747-400F aircraft, one (1) B747-400ERF and one (1) B777-200ER aircraft with DVB, DB and KDB Capital, ③ one (1) A380-800 aircraft with KEXIM and KEB
· Advised T'Way Air in the operating lease transactions involving five (5) B737-800 aircraft with AerCap, ACG, BBAM, DAE and ILFC
· Advised Jeju Air in the operating lease transactions involving two (2) B737-800 aircraft with GECAS
· Advised ICBC and ICBCL in the operating lease transactions involving five (5) A321-200 aircraft with Asiana Airlines
· Advised Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd. in the asset backed loan/securitization transactions involving certain air freight

Another area of Mr. Ryu’s practice is Project Finance & Infrastructure as well as Acquisition Financing. He successfully closed a USD650MM deal on Yonsei Songdo Global Academic Complex located in the Songdo Free Economic Zone. He was involved in forming the business structure and financing the land purchase and building constructions. This project required knowledge on special laws such as Special Act on Designation and Management of Free Economic Zones and Private School Act. Moreover, he mediated between financial institutions, local governments and local residents to carry out the deal. The size and the scope of the matter were large and he worked closely with different administrations to obtain authoritative interpretations of the law because there were hardly any precedents.

Mr. Ryu was also involved in implementing the regulations on the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT). This is a newly introduced field with rising importance in Korea. He conducted comparative analysis of different country laws to implement the most appropriate form for the Korean environment. During this process, he joined the Korea AML Forum and is currently involved as an active member of the Executive Committee.