Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is set to exit South Korea after six years in that country, even as fellow New York-headquartered firm Shearman & Sterling gets closer to opening an office there.
While Simpson Thacher would not provide additional comment beyond simply confirming existing media reports, Shearman remains tight-lipped, even though reports of a planned Seoul office first surfaced in April this year.
Led by partner Youngjin Sohn, Simpson Thacher was one of the first firms to establish a physical Seoul base after the legal market opened up in 2012 following the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement. However, Sohn is believed to be the only lawyer left in Simpson Thacher’s Seoul office at present.
The agreement, which was rolled out incrementally over several years, outlines that foreign-licensed lawyers and firms would be able to establish joint ventures and hire Korean-licensed lawyers as of 2017.
Shearman currently has five offices in Asia: In Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.
A total of 29 foreign law firms have offices in South Korea, of which 22 are from the U.S. The last major international firm to open an office in South Korea was Latham & Watkins back in 2016.
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