It’s long been clear that international law firms were eager to enter the Korean market. But exactly which firms and how many has turned out to be more of a surprise.
“Some of the firms that have applied to open an office are not any that we’ve seen in the market before,” says Yong Lee, the partner who will open the Seoul office for Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which has the largest and perhaps best-known Korea practice among international firms. “It seems quite clear that it’s going to be a very competitive market.”
