Dentons Lee, the Korea member firm of Dentons, has bolstered its healthcare practice by tapping Bernard Ham to head its Life Sciences and Healthcare practice as a senior foreign attorney.

Ham focuses his practice on cross-border complex transactions, intellectual property, compliance, and regulatory matters. He represents a wide range of clients, from start-ups to multinational companies, in various industries, including pharmaceutical, biopharma, medical device, diagnostics, healthcare, manufacturing, automotive, technology, and entertainment.

Ham joins Dentons Lee from Korean domestic firm Jipyong, where he spent over five years as a senior foreign attorney on its health care and life sciences team. He started his two-decade-long legal career in the United States, where he was a legal counsel at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for two years.

Apart from working for law firms like Alston & Bird, Baker McKenzie, and Lee, Hong, Degerman, Kang & Waimey in the U.S., Ham also held two senior corporate roles in Korea, first as head of business and legal affairs at entertainment provider CJ E&M, and then as senior managing director and head of business development at global molecular diagnostics company Seegene. He joined Jipyong in 2019.

Ham’s “deep expertise in complex cross-border transactions and regulatory matters will enable us to provide comprehensive and strategic solutions to our Life Sciences clients all around the world,” said Jean-Marc Grosperrin, global chair of Dentons’ Life Sciences and Healthcare Group, in a statement.

Apart from healthcare and life sciences, Ham has also advised clients in the automotive, technology and entertainment industries in corporate transactions, in particular Korean corporate investments into the U.S., according to the statement.

With Ham’s arrival, Dentons Lee currently has 64 lawyers, including 25 senior attorneys.