Following the hire of veteran attorney David Yang, Shin & Kim has launched a specialist team for the Latin American region – a first for Korean law firms.
In addition to Yang, the Latin America practice group will include the former Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy of Korea, Yung Ju Kim, other attorneys Young Woo Lee, Byung Tae Kim and foreign legal consultant Benjamin Hughes.
Hughes, who is both a foreign legal consultant to Shin & Kim and the co-chair of the firm’s international dispute resolution practice, was previously an attorney with Shearman & Sterling in San Francisco and Singapore.
According to Hughes, the firm is currently engaged in a high volume of outbound investments from Korean companies and hopes to capture investment flows going into Latin America – biding in particular for energy, infrastructure, construction and investment projects.
Some heavyweight Korean companies Shin & Kim is currently representing in Latin American mandates include LG International, energy company GS Caltex and a joint venture of STX and SK Energy.
Prior to joining Shin & Kim, Yang was employed with Yoon Yang Kim Shin & Yu for a year. Yang spent 11 years based in Buenos Aires, Argentina with Allende & Brea, where his practice focused on cross-border investments, mergers & acquisitions, general corporate transactions, and international litigation and arbitration.
Yang graduated from the University of Buenos Aires School of Law and received a Masters in Laws degree from the University of Virginia. He is trilingual in Korean, Spanish and English with a good understanding of Portuguese.ALB
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