Recent Developments

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.

Lee & Ko was selected as a top band law firm for seven consecutive years in the private wealth law category of “Chambers High Net Worth (HNW) 2025” as published by Chambers and Partners, a world renown legal media. 

Based on its high level of expertise in various practice areas, Lee & Ko provides advice on all legal and tax matters related to the accumulation, management, transfer and protection of personal assets to the owners and executives of large Korean conglomerates and their families. Recently, Lee & Ko has successfully represented a major shareholder of a Korean company in a USD 2 billion arbitration case, and continues to provide regulatory advice and has represented chairpersons of large Korean conglomerates in large-scale disputes involving company restructuring and reorganization. 
 
Dong Ha Kim, Lee & Ko’s dispute resolution expert, was selected as a Band1 attorney for two consecutive years in the individual category. Mr. Kim has extensive experience in corporate advisory and litigation, and his primary practice areas include litigation, corporate, medical, construction & real estate, government contracts and family law.
 
Chambers HNW represents the leading media in the field of private wealth law and is published in over 55 countries including Korea.

Partner Chang Ho Seong of Lee & Ko’s Dispute Resolution Group has been named by Asian Legal Business (ALB) to its 2025 list of the Top 30 Litigators in Asia.

Having served as a judge for 24 years since 1999, Mr. Seong brings deep insight from his time on the bench, during which he presided over a broad spectrum of civil, criminal, and administrative cases across multiple court levels spanning the Seoul Central District Court, the Seoul High Court, and the Supreme Court. He now draws on his extensive judicial experience to provide clients with litigation and legal advisory services in response to disputes and provisional dispositions involving civil, criminal, corporate, construction, real estate, banking, securities, financial, administrative and intellectual property matters.

Among his recent selected representations, Mr. Seong successfully defended SPC Group Chairman Young-in Heo in a high-profile criminal case involving allegations of breach of trust under the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, securing a full acquittal at the court of first instance — an outcome ultimately upheld by both the appellate court and the Supreme Court. He also obtained a full acquittal at the court of first instance on behalf of former Chairman Yang-ha Choi of Korean furniture company Hanssem in a criminal collusion case, which was subsequently dismissed on appeal. These achievements reaffirm his proven expertise and capacity in handling complex criminal and administrative litigation.

ALB Magazine, published by Thomson Reuters, is a leading legal publication in the Asia-Pacific region. In its June issue, ALB recognized the top 30 litigators in Asia who have delivered outstanding results in high-impact litigation across the region.