Recent Developments

19 lawyers from Lee & Ko have been selected in the '2025 Korea’s Top 100 Lawyers' researched by Asia Business Law Journal. Yong Seok Ahn and Kyu Wha Lee have also been recognized as one of the most influential lawyers in Korea, being named an “ICON” for their ability to provide valuable insights to the legal community based on their extensive experience.
 
The lists of Korea’s Top Lawyers selected from Lee & Ko are as follows:

 Banking & Finance: Woo Young Jung, Yeo Kyoon Yoon
 Capital Markets: Jin Hong Kwon, Hyunjoo Oh
 Competition/Antitrust: Yong Seok Ahn, Hwan Jeong
 Corporate/M&A: Sanggon Kim, Ho Joon Moon, Kyu Wha Lee, Hyeong Gun Lee
 Dispute Resolution: Arbitration: Jinyoung Jung
 Dispute Resolution: Litigation: Won Seok Ko
 Employment: Sang Hoon Lee 
 Insurance: Jin Hong Kwon, Jinyoung Jung
 IP: Jae Hoon Kim, Un Ho Kim
 Projects & Energy: Hun Ko, Dong Eun Kim
 Shipping: Jinyoung Jung, Woo Young Jung
 TMT: Hwan Kyoung Ko, Kwang Bae Park

Asia Business Law Journal (ABLJ), an Asian regional law magazine, conducts research on thousands of domestic and foreign in-house counsel as well as lawyers at international law firms to select the Top 100 lawyers in Korea every year.
 

Lee & Ko has once again reaffirmed its position as Korea’s leading law firm, being recognized as a top-tier firm across all 24 industry sectors and practice areas in Asialaw Profiles 2025. This marks the fifth consecutive year that Lee & Ko has achieved this distinction, an accomplishment unmatched by any other domestic law firm, many of which received top rankings only in select areas.

This recognition reflects Lee & Ko’s breadth of expertise, market-leading capabilities, and client trust across all key areas of legal practice in Korea and the Asia-Pacific region.

In addition, 44 Lee & Ko professionals were honored as Senior Statesman, Elite Practitioner, Distinguished Practitioner, Notable Practitioner, or Rising Star, highlighting the firm’s depth of individual talent and professional excellence.


Industry Sectors 
 Aviation and Shipping
 Consumer goods and Services
 Industrials and Manufacturing
 Insurance
 Pharmaceuticals and Life sciences
 Technology and Telecommunications
 Banking and Financial services
 Energy
 Infrastructure
 Media and Entertainment
 Real estate

Practice Areas
 Banking and Finance
 Competition/Antitrust
 Corporate and M&A
 Intellectual Property
 Labour and Employment
 Regulatory
 Tax
 Capital Markets
 Construction
 Dispute Resolution
 Investment Funds
 Private Equity
 Restructuring and Insolvency


 Banking and Financial services: Woo Young Jung, Yeo Kyoon Yoon, Yong-Jae Chang, Hyunjoo Oh, Seunga Hyun, Myoung Chul Kwak
 Banking and Finance: Woo Young Jung, Yeo Kyoon Yoon, Yong-Jae Chang, Myoung Chul Kwak, Samsung Kim, Min Ha Song
 Capital Markets: Hyunjoo Oh, Seunga Hyun
 Competition/Antitrust: Yong Seok Ahn, Hwan Jeong, Hyun Chul Kim, Jeong-Ho Sun, Jeong Yoon Choi, Suruyn Kim
 Corporate and M&A: Kyu Wha Lee, Sanggon Kim, Ho Joon Moon, Hyeong Gun Lee
 Dispute Resolution: Won Seok Ko, Saemee Kim
 Energy: Dong Eun Kim, Hun Ko, Insoo Kim
 Infrastructure: Dong Eun Kim, Hun Ko, Insoo Kim, Samsung Kim, Min Ha Song
 Insurance: Gidon Nam, Jinyoung Jung, Jin Hong Kwon
 Intellectual Property: Jae Hoon Kim, Un Ho Kim, Keum Nang Park, Jaewoo Kwak, Heon Lee
 Labour and Employment: Sang Hoon Lee, Chang Soo Jin, Hyunseok Song , William Kim
 Media and Entertainment: Kwang Bae Park
 Real estate: Jung Hwan Lee
 Restructuring and Insolvency: Wan Shik Lee, Eunjai Lee, Jung Hyun Lee
 Shipping: Jinyoung Jung , Gidon Nam
 Tax: Ok Hyun Ma, Sung Hwan Kim
 Technology and Telecommunications: Kwang Bae Park, Hwan Kyoung Ko, Samuel (Soon-Yub) Kwon, Yong Seok Ahn

Asialaw Profiles is published annually by Asialaw, an affiliate of the global financial journal Euromoney. Asialaw Profiles ranks law firms and individual practitioners across the Asia-Pacific region based on law firm submissions, client and peer interviews, and independent market research.

 

Lee & Ko has been recognized as a top-tier law firm in Managing IP’s 2025 IP Stars rankings in the categories of Trademark Disputes, Patent Disputes, Copyright & Related Rights, and IP Transactions. Particularly impressive is the firm’s continued success in IP Transactions, where it has maintained the highest ranking for five consecutive years since the category was first introduced, further underscoring its unrivaled expertise in this specialized practice area.

In the individual rankings, 11 Lee & Ko attorneys and patent attorneys have been recognized as IP Stars, Rising Stars, and Notable Practitioners, reflecting their distinguished expertise and achievements in the intellectual property field:


Patent Star: Un Ho Kim, Jae Hoon Kim, Keum Nang Park, Hwan Sung Park
Trademark Star: Jae Hoon Kim, Vera Eun Woo Lee
Rising star: Min Soo Kim, Min Wook Kim, Sung Hoon Kim

Lee & Ko’s Intellectual Property Group leverages its extensive global network to deliver premier legal services in patent disputes across multiple jurisdictions, including the United States, Europe, and Japan. With a deep and precise understanding of both technology and law, the Group consistently achieves favorable outcomes in both litigation and advisory matters. Most recently, Lee & Ko secured a landmark ruling before the Patent Court of Korea, the first decision to hold that posting and selling products covered by a Korean patent on overseas e-commerce platforms constitutes an “offer to assign,” thereby infringing the Korean patent right. This precedent-setting decision, grounded in a sophisticated analysis of cross-border e-commerce transactions and global case law developments, has been recognized as establishing a new interpretive standard for the protection of intellectual property rights.

Lee & Ko also provides comprehensive contractual and IP clearance advice, including matters relating to the Copyright Act, the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act, and rights of publicity, in connection with the production of Netflix series and other major content projects. By combining its deep expertise in copyright and IP transactions with extensive practical know-how, the firm offers production companies effective, tailored legal solutions to ensure the smooth production and distribution of creative works.

Managing Intellectual Property (Managing IP) is a leading international publication in the field of intellectual property. Each year, it publishes the IP Stars rankings based on surveys and interviews with IP professionals worldwide, identifying leading law firms by country and practice area.

Lee & Ko has once again secured Tier 1 ranking in the M&A category of the Asian Legal Business (ALB) M&A Rankings 2025. It has also captured No. 1 position among Korean law firms in both the Bloomberg M&A and Dealsite Capital Markets league tables, reaffirming its market-leading position in both M&A and capital markets advisory.
 
In this year’s Dealsite Capital Markets league table, Lee & Ko achieved the top ranking for M&A legal advisory, outperforming Kim & Chang by an impressive KRW 174.2 billion. Particularly notable was the firm’s second quarter performance, where it overtook the long-time market leader Kim & Chang to become the undisputed No. 1, which industry observers describe as a dramatic reversal that saw the firm making the leap to a market leader. According to Bloomberg’s 2025 first-half M&A league table, based on deal value, Lee & Ko advised on 53 transactions with an aggregate value of USD 7.61 billion, capturing 16.5% market share and securing the top position. The firm’s accomplishments were further highlighted at the Korea Capital Markets thebell League Table Awards 2025 hosted by thebell, where it was honored with the “Best M&A Buyer” award for its role in high-profile acquisitions, including E1 Consortium’s acquisition of Pyeongtaek Energy Service.
 
Asian Legal Business (ALB), a Thomson Reuters publication and a leading legal media platform in the Asia-Pacific region, compiles its rankings each year through extensive surveys and interviews with M&A practitioners across 12 Asian jurisdictions.

Lee & Ko has once again been ranked Tier 1 across all eight evaluated practice areas in the IFLR1000 2025 Edition (International Financial Law Review 1000). This achievement marks the fourteenth consecutive year that the firm has secured Tier 1 recognition in every category, an enduring testament to Lee & Ko’s market-leading capabilities in finance and corporate law. In addition to the firm-wide rankings, sixty-one of our professionals have been named Leading Lawyers across the individual practice areas, reaffirming our exceptional depth of expertise and the strength of our team. Notably, Hyunjoo Oh, a partner in our Banking & Finance Group, has been honored as a Women Leader for the sixth consecutive year. With more than 27 years of experience in capital markets, Ms. Oh is a highly respected finance specialist whose practice covers the full spectrum of capital markets transactions, including securities and derivatives, together with capital markets regulation, disputes, foreign exchange regulation, and other areas of corporate finance.


Banking and Finance
Capital Markets: Debt
Capital Markets: Equity
Capital Markets: Structured Finance and Securitisation
M&A
Private Equity
Project Development
Restructuring and Insolvency


 Banking and Finance: Sangwoo Ahn, Lachlan Barth, Yong-Jae Chang, Young Je Cho, Eun Sam Choi, Eui Yeon Jo, Woo Young Jung, Dong Eun Kim, Insoo Kim, Kwang Yul Kim, Hun Ko, Myoung Chul Kwak, Paul (Jung Woo) Moon, Yunjeong Seo, Dong Seok Woo, Paul H.J. Yoon, Yeo Kyoon Yoon
 Capital Markets: Sae Ho Ahn, Hyunji Bae, Jun Woo Cho, Kyoung Jun Cho, Kyu Hyeok Choi, Seung Hoon Choi, Wonkyu Han, Seunga Hyun, Donga Jung, Dongyon Kim, Jiseon Kim, Minsik Kim, Jin Hong Kwon, Han Kyung Lee, Eui Cheol Na, Hyunjoo Oh
 Corporate and M&A: Yong Seok Ahn, Da Hye Cho, Seok Pyo Hong, Sungmee Hong, Hwan Jeong, Ki Wook Kang, Sanggon Kim, Sung Min Kim, Daehoon Koo, Gu Beom Kwon, Eunjai Lee, Je Won Lee, Hyeong Gun Lee, Kyu Wha Lee, Ho Joon Moon, Joohyun Oh, Kyu Seok Park, Kyung Gyoon Park, Hyesoo Won, Yong Joon Yoon
 Investment Funds: Je Won Lee
 Project Development: Sangwoo Ahn, Lachlan Barth, Eun Sam Choi, Weon Sik Chung, Jinyoung Jung, Samsung Kim, Insoo Kim, Kwang Yul Kim, HyunJae Nam, Jungmin Pak
 Restructuring and Insolvency: Seok Pyo Hong, Sungmee Hong, Eunjai Lee, Jung Hyun Lee, Wanshik Lee, Jiwoong Lim

IFLR1000 is the only global legal directory focused exclusively on ranking law firms and lawyers for their expertise in finance and corporate transactions worldwide.

Vera Eun Woo Lee, a partner of Lee & Ko’s IP Group, has been named one of the “Top 15 Female Lawyers 2025” by Asian Legal Business (ALB) Magazine in its August issue. Among the 15 lawyers selected, she was the sole lawyer from Korea to receive this distinction, a testament to her exceptional expertise and distinguished accomplishments in the IP field.
 
Since joining Lee & Ko in 2004, Ms. Lee has built a distinguished career in IP law, handling the full spectrum of IP matters, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, domain names, unfair competition, IP licensing, and employee inventions. She has also overseen numerous high-profile copyright, trademark, and unfair competition litigations with considerable legal significance. Among her career highlights, Ms. Lee has successfully led complex dispute cases that had no prior legal precedents, namely, a Supreme Court case that served to establish the standards for determining copyright infringement in game works, as well as other landmark cases delineating the scope of protection for photographic works and addressing the long-standing unauthorized use of a mark. 

ALB Magazine is a leading legal magazine in the Asia-Pacific region published by Thomson Reuters, a prestigious legal business publisher. Each year, the magazine recognizes the “Top 15 Female Lawyers” who have demonstrated outstanding achievements throughout their careers, selecting honorees from 13 different Asian countries, including India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and Japan.