Law Firms’ Urge to Merge Continues
by Brendon Carr
It’s been a hot summer for the legal market, with firms merging and combining all over. On Friday I noticed the trade newspaper Law Times reporting that Korean law firms continue seeking critical mass:
A three-way merger between Hanbit Law Group, Saegil Patent & Law Firm, and Law Offices of Ha-Yeon Cha, which brings into being a new, 46-member mid-sized firm (with just two foreign legal consultants, so far as I can see, so job-hunters, hint hint...) which expressly states its objective of joining the “100 Club”. Since organic growth is hard to come by, the 100 Club ambition points to this combined firm continuing to seek acquisitions or to be acquired, even as they work on the difficult chore of integration.
Additionally, the paper reports another three-way combination—albeit one short of a merger at this point, instead being a “close cooperation” pledge—was just announced involving Evergreen Law Group (34 attorneys, mostly Shin & Kim alumni), 13-strong SiGong Law P.C., and the eight-member SanGyung Law Firm (also calling itself Law Firm Kim & Kim). Since the firms have only slightly different practice areas and specialties, my guess is a formal merger didn’t happen because of different levels of profitability and expectations for profit-sharing, but that they’re trying to work things out for a fuller integration in the future. Otherwise, given the nature of Korean law firms, I can’t imagine how their cooperation would work.
(P.S.—For reference, the grinning gentleman on the right-hand side of the three-way grip-and-grin is Mr. Yong-Seok Park, the partner who supervised and trained my partner Doil Son and me when we worked under him at Shin & Kim eight years ago. He’s one of the very best teachers and supervisors available to an international lawyer in Seoul, offering encouragement, a gentle but rigorous Socratic method, and benign neglect provided you don’t fuck things up. Young lawyers looking for work, hint hint...)
(P.P.S.—SiGong Law’s Hoon Lee seems to be in the same kind of funk as I’ve fallen into. He’s not updating KoreaLaw.com that often, just like Korea Law Blog this last month. But just like Korea Law Blog—at least I hope you think so—there’s stuff to be learned from reading Hoon’s blog. Check out KoreaLaw.com...)
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