Lee & Ko is a premier, full-service law firm providing comprehensive legal solutions for disputes across all sectors of the capital markets, including securities, antitrust, taxation, and white-collar crime. We represent a diverse range of clients in matters arising from complex financial investment products and capital market transactions.
Building on a long-standing track record of success in landmark capital markets cases, we have strategically expanded our team with top-tier specialists to address the increasingly sophisticated and evolving legal challenges in this field.
Civil Litigation
- DLS Subscription Agreement Dispute: Secured a complete victory in a lawsuit concerning the refund of acquisition payments in a private derivative-linked security (DLS) worth KRW 30 billion. The Courts upheld Lee & Ko’s argument that the terms were breached when an insurance policy different from the one specified in the DLS issuance agreement was purchased.
- Overseas Derivatives Dispute: Won a complete victory by establishing the legality and validity of forced liquidations (offsetting transactions) executed without a margin call in overseas exchange-traded derivative transactions.
- Total Return Swaps (TRS) Dispute: Advised on the Thai Baht-linked TRS litigation during the 1998 IMF crisis, the first major international derivative dispute in Korea.
- Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy: Provided strategic counsel to domestic financial institutions and corporations regarding creditor/debtor disputes with Lehman Brothers affiliates following the global financial crisis.
- Regulatory Defense: Advised financial institutions on investor complaints filed with the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and successfully navigated related regulatory sanctions.
- Financial Product Disputes: Handled complex disputes between financial institutions and investors involving ELS, ELW, CLN, CDS, and CDO products.
- KEB M&A Settlement: Advised on high-stakes disputes regarding the price settlement for the sale of Korea Exchange Bank (KEB).
- KIKO Litigation: Represented banks in landmark "KIKO" currency option cases, securing the first-ever dismissal of injunctions and favorable merits rulings.
- Discretionary Accounts Dispute: Obtained a precedent-setting Supreme Court ruling regarding disputes over discretionary stock investment accounts.
Criminal Defense
- SM Market Manipulation Case: Obtained an acquittal in a pioneering case where on-exchange purchases during a tender offer period were prosecuted as manipulation; argued successfully that the on-exchange purchases were not undertaken for the purpose of fixing or stabilizing market prices, but rather constituted legitimate business decisions made to secure an equity interest.
- Naked Short Selling Case: Secured an acquittal in a Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act(“Capital Markets Act”) violation case involving alleged illegal short selling worth KRW 16 billion. The Courts upheld Lee & Ko’s argument that there was no evidence proving that the bank’s employees knowingly engaged in naked short selling in violation of regulations .
- Fund Fraud Case: Successfully defended clients and obtained a non-guilty verdict in a USD 227 million fund fraud case by demonstrating that, under the Capital Markets Act, a breach of the duty of care is legally distinct from criminal intent.
- Unfair Trading Case: Successfully defended against charges of inflating stock prices through false disclosures of new business ventures, proving the substantive reality of the projects.
- ELW Scalping Case: Secured a "not guilty" verdict in a case alleging the Capital Markets Act violations related to the provision of high-frequency trading services to scalpers.
- White-Collar Defense: Obtained acquittals in major criminal cases related to corporate responsibility during the 1998 IMF financial crisis.
- Advisory: Provides expert counsel on stock price manipulation, short-swing profit recovery, and insider trading investigations.
