Demand for lawyers specialising in international arbitration and antitrust matters in Korea is likely to increase as the legal market opens up to foreign firms and international arbitration gains more ground in the country.

Lawyers from major local firms such as Kim & Chang, Bae Kim & Lee and Lee & Ko predict that foreign and domestic lawyers with international arbitration expertise will be highly sought after in the next few years.

The firms have been building their international arbitration practices since the beginning of the year by hiring lawyers in the field. In October Lee & Ko boosted its international arbitration practice with three foreign lawyer appointments – Min Ho Lee from Seyfarth Shaw, Jinyung Lee from Morrison & Foerster, and Bryan Shin from McKee Nelson. The firm has also appointed two local lawyers. In the same month Kim & Chang also hired antitrust specialist Youngjin Jung from Yulchon; while Yulchon hired former Daewoo General Counsel Suk Jo Kim. In May, Bae Kim & Lee (BKL) received a major coup with former International Court of Arbitration (ICC) arbitrators James Morrison and David MacArthur joining the firm.

However, this may be the tip of the iceberg. Kim & Chang partner Jung said that demand for lawyers with knowledge of international law will increase, to assist local companies venturing overseas under new trade agreements with the US and EU countries. “As the Korean legal market is liberalised and legal practices become more globalised, lawyers trained in other jurisdictions will come to Korea to work on both domestic and international practices,” said Jung.

BKL’s James Morrison agreed. “Korea is becoming an increasingly important and attractive jurisdiction for lawyers to develop their international practices, particularly in international arbitration,” he said.

Korean companies are growing users of arbitration as a means to settle cross-border disputes and this is likely to increase with the ratification of the US and EU FTAs, as companies may challenge rulings imposed on them in those jurisdictions. Lee & Ko’s Sean Lim said the firm is currently handling ICC cases involving dispute amounts in excess of US$185m.

Morrison has chronicled the growth of arbitration in Asia during his time as a counsel at the ICC Secretariat. “If you look at recent statistics published by the ICC, Korean parties are consistently towards the top of the table in terms of the number of parties in ICC cases,” he said. “The number of Korean arbitrators is also growing and Seoul is more frequently designated as a place of arbitration, both by parties and arbitral institutions.”

Foreign-qualified lawyers such as Morrison are a good fit for local firms, despite the limitations imposed on them by the bar. Lee & Ko, having already hired three lawyers from the US this year, is looking to hire more. “Even if they’re not physically present in Korea, lawyers trained in other jurisdictions such as in the US or Europe will be perfectly qualified to practice here,” said Jung. “International legal practice is not really limited to local jurisdictions as the working language is English and the governing law is not domestic law, sometimes international law, in the case of ICSID arbitration.”

Yulchon’s deputy head of international dispute resolution, Sae Youn Kim, said that more than 25% of the firm’s lawyers are qualified overseas. “Our international arbitration team is even more globalised – two-thirds of our attorneys hold foreign bar licenses not only from the US but also from England and Wales, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Russia, Kazakhstan, Australia, and New Zealand.”

However, while trade agreements may lead to more work for Korean firms, the present delay in ratifying the US and EU FTAs will mean those firms aren’t likely to go on aggressive hiring sprees immediately.

Morrison for one is somewhat cautious in attributing full credit to the impact of the FTAs on work for firms and demand for lawyers. “My impression is that the recent free trade agreements are not by themselves the explanation for any influx in the number of foreign lawyers in Korea,” he said. “Market factors and career opportunities motivate foreign lawyers to relocate to Korea, rather than the free trade agreements per se. So while I think it would be safe to say that there appears to be an increasing number of foreign lawyers relocating to Korea, I don't think the floodgates have opened.”

Morrison said that Korean firms understand the need for diversity of experience that foreign lawyers present. “There are definitely advantages in having a diverse team well-equipped to deal with the rich cultural, linguistic and legal subtleties involved in different arbitration matters. Korean law firms understand this and it’s for this reason that we’re seeing [this] growth and diversification of arbitration practices within Korean firms.”