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parties unlikely to cede ground on any number of issues, not to mention the fact that, in his opinion, cracking the Chinese market is higher on US firms’ to-do list. “Most of Korea’s major law firms are likely to remain independent, rather than forming ‘lock-in’ affiliations with foreign partners that risk limiting their client base,” he told Korea Times. But it remains to be seen whether Korean firms will be in a position to resist the overtures of international firms. The important role that international lawyers play in driving the growth of Korea’s nascent financial services industry is no secret and domestic firms may indeed find joint law ventures to be one of the few ways that they are able to maintain relevancy in terms of both market share and talent retention in an open market. Meanwhile, Horizon Law Group and Jisung Law Offices have finalised the merger agreement inked back in May of this year, in a move many industry experts see as pre-empting legal market liberalisation. The new firm, to be known as Jisung Horizon Law Offices (JH), will create Korea’s seventh largest law firm with close to 130 attorneys. JH already has a presence in China (Shanghai) and Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City) in addition to its Korean offices, but various sources
told ALB that the opening of a second Vietnam office in Hanoi is “imminent”. Korean law firms have something of a penchant for mergers. In addition to JH’s entente, Kim Chang & Lee’s merger with Kim & Company and DeRyook’s alliance with Aju Law Firm are but two examples of this pattern. All of these, at least according to the firms, were about relevancy, synergy and synchronicity – or reading between the lines, bigger is better. But it remains to be seen whether bigger is actually sustainable, for while alliances may make perfect business sense, it is set to create a logistical nightmare for Korean law firms, with office space, of all things, likely to dictate the plausibility of any such moves in the future. The Law Times and the Korea Law Blog both suggest that the vacancy rate of commercial office buildings is perilously low. The vacancy rate in commercial buildings with at least 10 storeys is at or below 1%, and there is absolutely no spare room in 65.5% of office buildings across the Seoul CBD. In Kangnam, Mapo, Yeoido and the Kwanghwamun area CBD, close to 70% have lit their neon ‘no vacancy’ signs. Seeking a merger partner may soon be less about seeking out synergies than finding vacant office space. ALB
ANALYSIS
The world post-Lehman Bros
What is in store for firms in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse? ALB takes a closer look
W
hen the economy is down, restructuring and insolvency work go up. That is one of the great cliches of law firm management, but we are starting to get a profound
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insight into the truth behind it. At Linklaters, to name but one example, a team of 20 is advising on Lehman’s UK administration while the firm is also advising Lloyds on the HBOS takeover. Lovells has also picked
news in brief >> PRC law firm opens Australian office Beijing-based boutique firm MMLC Group opened its first Australian office in Brisbane, to meet the growing demand for cross-border work between China and Australia. Firm founder and managing partner Matthew Murphy said the Brisbane office will serve as a base for work mainly focused on inbound Chinarelated deals. “We feel it’s very important to offer personal face-to-face assistance for corporations or government that operate in Australia. In the past, we had to fly into Australia for meetings, but there is a lot more you can do face to face as opposed to with the telephone or e-mail,” he said. “Chinese companies are looking to takeover Australian distribution networks and businesses … They need to make big deals because they want to make it worthwhile, due to Chinese government controls and the time taken to get approval,” he said.
Beijing: Slaughter and May moves in with friends If you are going to set up a representative office in China, it is good to have friends around for moral support. This seems to be the approach at Magic Circle firm Slaughter and May, which has announced plans to apply for a licence to set up an office in Greg Goulding, Beijing and co-locate with two of Slaughter and May its ‘best friend’ firms, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek of the Netherlands and Uría Menéndez of Spain. However, as some of these ‘best friend’ firms have offices in the same cities, such as London and Brussels, there will inevitably be some level of competition between them. However, Slaughter and May is confident that rivalry will not be a major problem. “What we have to gain by working together and supporting each other is vastly more important and significant than the occasional job here and there where we are competitors,” said Slaughter and May partner Greg Goulding.
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