Baker McKenzie and KL Partners entered into a joint venture in a show of the Firm’s commitment to grow in Asia at a time when some other international law firms are shrinking their footprints. In an interview with Asian Legal Business, Beomsu Kim and Jae-Hyon Ahn, the joint representatives of Baker McKenzie & KL Partners Joint Venture Law Firm (the JV), discuss the abundant opportunities that Korea presents and how the JV supports clients with their Korea inbound and outbound investments and business expansion.
The two leaders expect that strong interest from overseas investors, particularly from Europe, Japan and the US, will continue, with investments oriented toward manufacturing, finance and insurance, trade, artificial intelligence (AI), big data, cloud computing, as well as electric cars and biotechnology sectors. Increased regulatory scrutiny, economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions are also driving up cross-border disputes.
Through the JV, the team will be able to provide integrated Korean and cross-border transactional and advisory legal advice to clients, as well as give Korea-based companies access to a local-global law service with a full-service offering that Baker McKenzie provides across 18 practices in more than 70 locations.