법무법인(유한) 율촌 | Yulchon LLC

"Clients and competitors agree that Yulchon has a 'first-rate offering'" --IFLR1000

Yulchon earned a position as a “Recommended” law firm for all of the practice areas -- M&A, Capital Markets, Banking & Project Finance, and Restructuring & Insolvency -- ranked by the IFLR 1000, an affiliate of the International Finance Law Review that publishes an independent guide to the world’s top law financial law firms based on extensive surveys, client and competitor interviews, and other independent news sources.

IFLR1000 2010 also designated Yulchon’s Sai Ree Yun, Hee Chul Kang, and Bong Hee Han as “Leading Lawyers” and identified Christopher Cho as particularly praised by clients. The highly favorable IFLR editorial profile of Yulchon follows without edits:

"I dare strongly to recommend Yulchon as the best financial law firm," says one impressed client. Celebrating its 12th anniversary this year, Yulchon has much to be proud of. Although still relatively young compared to its counterparts in the market and smaller in size, the firm gained momentum as a trusted, quality firm this past year.

Clients and competitors agree that Yulchon has a "first-rate offering". It is especially recognised in the market for its antitrust and tax expertise. "I am quite happy with my experience with them," says an in-house client. "Every lawyer I've dealt with from Yulchon has been extremely professional and the quality of advice has been excellent. Definitely they are an up-and-coming firm on par with the usual major suspects." A rival lawyer notes, "I have respect for them, they are not as established in terms of age but their lawyers are very strong."

Clients reserves praise for finance specialist Christopher Cho: "He understands the legal and business aspects of what we want to achieve and always tries to find a practical solution for us. I appreciate his responsive, reliable advice and his expertise in finance." Another says: "I believe Mr Cho and his team are one of the best in the corporate finance sector. He is reliable, accessible and responsible and in particular, we've been impressed by his negotiation skills."

One noteworthy area the firm has made huge headway in is M&A. "Yulchon has an excellent group of M&A lawyers who are highly experienced and skilled in handling both domestic and outbound M&A transactions for us," notes a financial client. "They are a very dedicated group of professionals who take a positive attitude and demonstrate the flexibility to solve complicated legal issues in an innovative and practical way."

The client adds: "They are loyal to the client, trustworthy and understand our needs. I like how their M&A team also works very closely and seamlessly with other Yulchon practice groups that are highly regarded in the market such as tax, labour and antitrust."

Corporate specialist Sai Ree Yun and corporate and finance head Hee Chul Kang head the M&A team, each a well-respected figure in the market. This year the group scored big, landing a coveted role advising KT Freetel (KTF) on its $17 billion merger with KT. Another highlight was representing all involved parties in the joint venture between Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDI and Samsung Mobile Display, valued at $520 million. The practice received a boost this year with the hiring of senior foreign consultant John Kim from Kim & Chang.

Two notable deals for the banking and finance team were in acting the Export-Import Bank of Korea in a complex ship financing and in advising the mandated lead arrangers HSBC, ING Bank and ABN Amro in a $450 million syndicate loan to Kia Motors Manufacturing for its construction of an assembly plant in the US. Yulchon's capital markets practice remains strong in assisting domestic financial institutions such as Hana Bank, Hyundai Capital Services and National Agricultural Cooperative Federation in establishing their Malaysian ringgit MTN programmes. SK Telecom sought the team's counsel on its issue and sale of $333 million convertible notes due 2014.

"We fully recommend Yulchon for capital markets transactions as we believe their finance team members have a solid base of knowledge of legal issues affecting various capital markets instruments and transactions," says a banker client. "Furthermore, we have found its lawyers very responsive and accessible. We have been most impressed by the quality of their advice and their programmatic approach in the many deals they've worked on for us."
 

Yulchon has a top tier ranking in the IFLR1000