“We’re not interested in sending political messages or sparking any troubles there. All we want is that people in the North wear warm socks over their frozen feet,” said spokeswoman Sunny Kim. “Warm socks are so rare and they can easily be traded for cash in the North. One pair of socks fetches about 22 pounds of corn, which is enough to sustain a person for a month.”

The North is impoverished by funneling the majority of its resources into its 1.2 million-strong armed forces under its “military-first” policy, Songun.

The group has been lofting such care packages for months, with socks and messages of love and hope. Though the messages are “politically innocuous,” they haven’t always been. Seoul has sent messages urging North Korea to revolt in the same manner as others in the Middle East and North Africa had last year. North Korean capitol Pyongyan has loudly denounced such incendiary messages, making no comments about the supplies and messages of hope that have also been sent, and has even threatened to open fire upon the launch sites.

Says Pyongyang, the Southern government has failed to respect the mourning period for Kim Jong Il, who died December 17.

The latest launch took place in Paju, South Korea, Saturday 28, 2012, at the Unification Observatory Post. Such socks are intended to offer some comfort to North Korea in the sub-zero temperatures. Other efforts, including the delivery of food and fertilizer, have been stopped by Seoul’s administration. Humanitarian deeds like the sock loft are permitted, but the government is moving from its previous “Sunshine Policy” to a more aggressive stance.

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South Korea may be a hot market for US law firms seeking to break new ground in Asia these days, but for several years its been a new legal quagmire for a Dallas-based private equity form that brought a controlling stake in one of the country’s biggest financial institutions for $1.5 billions in 2003.

Now that the private equity shop, Lone Star Funds, appears to be close to resolving its problems. The Lone Star reached a revised agreement this week to sell a 51 percent stake in Korea Exchange Bank, the largest foreign exchange bank is South Korea, to Hana Financial Group for $3.5 billion.

The announcement comes about a year after Lone Star and Hana first announced a deal under which the latter would acquire the former’s state in KEB, which was founded as a government-owned institution in 1967.

The initial agreement with Hana, which has actually been mored in legal and regulatory proceedings, came after Lone Star’s two previous attempts to unload KEB fell. The failed transactions include a potential $7.3 billion sale to South Korea’s KB Kookim Bank in late 2006 and a $6.3 billion sale to HSBC Holdings in late 2008.

According to The Wall Street Journal, to get the latest deal done, Lone Star agreed to slash the asking price for its KEB stake by 11 percent. Even at the discounted price, Lone Star stands to make a hefty profit from the sale of KEB.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and South Korean firm Kim & Chang took the lead in advising Lone Star on its initial investment, with additional outside counsel provided by British from Simmons & Simmons and Australian firm Minter Ellison. (A new team of team of lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Bryan Cave, and South Korean firm Shin & Kim advised KEB on its sale to the Lone Star.)

A spokeswoman for Skadden, which represented Lone Star on a related disposition of a US -based KEB subsidiary, told The Am Law Daily in an e-mail on Friday that the firm had to role advising on the current sale of KEB to Hana. Representatives for the Magic Circle firms Allen & Overy and Linklates, which have advised on several other aborted transactions by Lone Star and by KEB, respectively, did not respond immediately to requests for comment on whether their firms were involved in the current deal.

Also, Kim & Chang did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on whether it continues to represent Lone Star, but Asia Legal Business reported last year that the private equity shop had retained the firm for counsel on the ultimately unsuccessful sales to Kookmin and KSBC, and on the proposed sale to Hana.

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Ever since allowing foreign law firms into Seoul, South Korea, Clear Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP is planning an office in the city. The firm is based in New York and will be opened in the first half of 2012, led by Yong Guk Lee, who is moving from Hong Kong to the new office.

The free trade agreement was negotiated with the United States government four years ago but it was not ratified by South Korean lawmakers until last week. The law should take effect by January 1, 2012 and will permit United States lawyers to enter a rich market. The market is so saturated that over $119 billion has been raised from debt and equity sales in 2011 alone. This is compared to $92 billion back in 2005.

Europe approved its free trade accord with South Korea on July 1 but no law firms have moved into the country as of yet. Paul Hastings LLP, from Los Angeles, could be the other United States law firm moving into Seoul within the next couple of months.

The majority of Korean-speaking lawyers are trained by the United States, which makes it difficult for European and United Kingdom firms to send qualified lawyers to the fourth-largest economy in Asia.

“You just don’t see that many Korean lawyers that are U.K.-trained,” said Evan Jowers of Kinney Recruiting.

DLA Piper is performing research as to whether or not they should open an office in South Korean. DLA Piper is the world’s largest law firm, employing more than 4,000 lawyers. DLA is headquartered in London while running its U.S. and international units separately. DLA is allowed to use either the United States or the Europe trade agreements with South Korea to enter into business in the country.

“Korea is definitely a market a firm like ours wants a presence in,” Alastair Da Costa, DLA’s Asia Pacific managing director said.

Once a law firm sets up shop in South Korea, it can offer advice on law to its residents. Once the firm has been operating for two years in South Korea, the firm can form alliances local law firms and begin to offer advice on South Korean law. Once the firm has been operating in South Korea for five years, it can hire lawyers residing in Korea in an effort to offer advice on Korean law independently.

There are higher tax rates on legal fees and a regulatory government for firms looking to move to South Korea. Jeffrey Jones is the former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce but now works for a South Korean law firm, one of many lawyers doing so right now in South Korea.

“There’s a learning curve, and in the meantime the domestic firms will get better from the competition,” he said.

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The exchange of artillery fire between North and South Korea set the stage for China to make a distinctive mark on the world stage…

The law firm bonus season began…

Crowell & Moring LLP & the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law established the Took Crowell Institute for At-Risk youth…

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China’s response will be shaped by global interests but also by two strong regional interests.  With a population of over one billion and a rapidly expanding economy moving slowly but inexorably toward a free market system, China is the emerging superpower of the 21st century.  As her economic interests expand, so does her desire for regional dominance when it comes to issues of security.  Any conflict on the Korean peninsula threatens China’s long term strategic goals if it leads to increased western military activity in the region.  With more than 25,000 American troops already in South Korea and another 35,000 in Japan along with a naval strike group, China is concerned that further military escalation could lead to increased US deployments.  Furthermore, last week’s revelation of a uranium enrichment facility in the north ratchets up concerns over a nuclear arms race in the Pacific Rim region, to the detriment of China’s security interests.  China is also very interested in the stability of North Korea, and if the regime should collapse China wants to make sure it happens as gently as possible.  There is already a large refugee problem in the region around their shared border, and a rapid collapse of North Korea would likely trigger a massive exodus of refugees into China.

These regional interests are balanced by China’s global interests.  China’s booming economy is largely fueled by western investments into Chinese industries.  These investments are due to the perception that China is a rational actor on the world stage.  Should China do anything to weaken that perception, uncertainty about China’s future would cause much of this capital to shift to other emerging economies like India and Brazil.

North Korea’s provocations can be traced to crippling food shortages and the desire to secure a smooth transition of power from Kim Jung Il to his son, Kim Jung Un.  The North Korean economy has been in tatters since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which once provided large amounts of aid to its communist counterpart.  Food shortages in the country are reported to have reached critical levels, and the US has refused to lift sanctions that prevent foreign aid from reaching the impoverished country so long as North Korea continues to take a hard line on its nuclear program.  By exposing its uranium enrichment plant and attacking the South Korean island with artillery, North Korea is trying to force a return to the bargaining table under more favorable terms.  At the same time, Kim Jung Un is likely to take over the reins in the next two years but has not yet fully brought the military around to his side.  The support of North Korea’s armed forces is critical to the smooth transition and this show of force may be, in part, designed to rally the military establishment to his banner.

With that in mind, China will likely press for emergency aid to North Korea.  By providing much needed food, China can prevent escalated violence while easing some of the refugee pressures along the border.  Such an action would likely win the support of key international players like South Korea, who has recently signaled a willingness to, at least temporarily, abandon a hard line position in order to provide humanitarian aid.  This move by China would present  a humanitarian face to the world and even if opposed diplomatically by the US because it would ease pressure on Kim to return to the six party nuclear talks, the public face of China would be preserved, ensuring the continued flow of western capital into its economy.

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Nine IP lawyers from Fish & Richardson head for Bracewell & Giuliani…

Bloomberg is set to unveil its new legal search engine…

A new law makes it easier for foreign firms to open in South Korea…

and Kenneth Glazer has joined K&L Gates…

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Currently, the US and South Korea do not have a qualifying trade deal. A June 2007 accord has been stalled by the legislatures in both countries.

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A Federal Court in New York rejected Standard and Poor’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them in a sub-prime mortgage case…

Bryan Cave is paying new associates to look elsewhere for employment…

Lawyers in South Korea are struggling with the new economy…

Pepper Hamilton makes offers to half its summers….

The Chief Justice of Hong Kong is retiring early…

and legendary litigator Bob Bennett leaves Skadden for Hogan & Hartson

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One reason for the traditionally low number of unemployed lawyers in South Korea is the difficulty of their bar exam which has a pass rate of about ten percent. As harsh as that seems, it used to be worse. In 2002 the pass rate was increased to graduate 1,000 lawyers per year. Part of the rise in jobless rates for new lawyers might be attributed to an increase in the number of lawyers without a corresponding increase in need.

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Now, the 31 year old Park Dae-Sung, is charged with going too far in an online discussion. He stated that the government had banned major financial institutions and trade businesses from purchasing U.S. dollars in an attempt to strengthen the local currency. Prosecutors are calling his information inaccurate and saying that it disrupted the foreign exchange market.

He was arrested last week, which sparked a debate about freedom of speech on the Internet and in South Korea.  South Korea is considered to be one of the most technologically savvy nations in the world.

Dae-Sung had regularly denounced the method by which his government handled the economy and made regular, mostly negative, predictions about the future. He is speculated to be an economic expert and his identity was hotly debated in his home country.

He has been denied bail. Dae-Sung’s lawyer said he did not intend to harm the public.

Dae-Sung could spend up to five years in prison or be fined up to 50 million won (US$36,360).

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