O’Melveny Further Expands Korea Practice as Dealmaker Woojae Kim Joins Seoul Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SEOUL—November 1, 2021—O’Melveny announced today that one of Korea’s leading M&A lawyers, Woojae Kim, has joined the firm as a partner based in Seoul.

Woojae is a trusted advisor to Korean companies on their outbound, cross-border matters as well as to international investment banks and private equity clients in major transactions involving Korean businesses. He is highly regarded for his broad abilities spanning cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity investments, financings, and securities offerings.

Before joining O’Melveny, Woojae was a partner at one of Korea’s largest domestic law firms and a corporate partner in an AmLaw 100 firm in Seoul. He also previously practiced in both New York and Hong Kong, giving him a rare, Asia-regional and international perspective and approach.

Woojae’s arrival follows O’Melveny’s addition in February of another top cross-border M&A lawyer in Seoul, Daniel Kim, with whom he practiced for nearly 10 years at the same major international firm. Together, they worked closely on some of the most important cross-border and outbound deals in Korea, including Samsung Electronics’ US$8 billion acquisition of Harman International—then the largest Korean outbound M&A transaction on record.

“We’re delighted to welcome Woojae to the firm as we continue to execute on our strategic plan in Korea,” said O’Melveny chair Bradley J. Butwin. “Woojae is widely respected by our clients and well known to our lawyers. We aim to offer our clients top-tier transactional and litigation capabilities in Seoul, and Woojae is an integral part of that effort.”

“Woojae’s arrival solidifies O’Melveny’s market-leading reputation for helping Korean companies and international clients on their Korea-related matters,” said Joseph Kim, partner and chair of O’Melveny’s Korea practice. “Our Korean clients have achieved astounding success this year, and we look forward to Woojae being an important part of this continuing equation in the years to come.”

Woojae is admitted to practice in New York. He is registered as a Foreign Legal Consultant in Korea, and is fluent in English and Korean.

O’Melveny’s Seoul office and Korea practice have earned acclaim for advising clients in strategically important cross-border mergers and acquisitions, investment transactions, high-stakes patent litigation, antitrust matters, class actions, and investigations. As Korea continues to emerge as one of the world’s commercial and innovation centers, O’Melveny brings the resources, experience, commitment, and breadth of service to achieve important goals for its clients. This year, O’Melveny represented Korean companies in many significant transactions, including SK E&S’ up to US$400 million equity investment in REV Renewables, CJ CheilJedang and Bibigo®’s multiyear global marketing partnership with the Los Angeles Lakers, DL Chemical’s US$1.6 billion acquisition of Kraton Corporation, and Samsung Display’s US$1.5 billion sale of Corning shares.

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