Sidley Austin Trial Lawyer and Arbitration Partner Moves to Hong Kong

Sidley Austin Trial Lawyer and Arbitration Partner Moves to Hong Kong

July 14, 2006

    HONG KONG, July 14 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- International
law firm Sidley Austin has announced that partner, ALLEN C.
KIM, has relocated to the firm's Hong Kong office. Mr. Kim
is an experienced litigator who has spent more than fifteen
years practicing in the United States, specializing in
complex litigation and international arbitration. Sidley's
Hong Kong office has significant experience  in
representing Asia-based clients in multi-jurisdictional
litigation and in international arbitration, and Mr. Kim
will  be active in further developing such practices in the
region.  

    Mr. Kim has been resident in Sidley's Los Angeles
office and he has handled numerous complex cases, both in
court and in arbitration.  He has extensive experience in
handling disputes arising out of international joint
ventures, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property
license and technology transfer agreements, as well as in
matters involving securities, RICO and mass tort class
actions. 

    As an experienced trial lawyer, Mr. Kim has
successfully completed numerous jury and bench trials, as
well as several lengthy commercial and international
arbitration hearings.  The representative clients for whom
he has recently handled international arbitration and
litigation matters include, among others, LG group
companies, Samsung group companies and General Electric,
and his recent cases (in the last three years) include:

    -- Obtained a favorable arbitration award against one
of the largest 
       medical device companies in the world, in a dispute
arising out of a 
       "staged acquisition" agreement where the
claims and counter claims 
       asserted included complex fraud and antitrust
issues, as well as 
       contract-based ones.  After a lengthy hearing, the
Firm client, an 
       Asia-based technology start-up company, was awarded
over $64 million on 
       its claims, granted forgiveness of over $18 million
in loans, and 
       exonerated on all of the counter-claims asserted. 
Most significantly, 
       the Final Award returned to the client control and
ownership of all of 
       its intellectual property, which it had licensed to
the U.S. medical 
       device company.

    -- Secured a favorable defense award on behalf of an
affiliate of a large 
       Korean conglomerate, in an International Chamber of
Commerce (ICC) 
       arbitration held in Paris, France against a Saudi
company.  The Saudi 
       company had sought over $40 million in damages
claiming bad faith 
       breach of an exclusive agency agreement.  

    -- Successfully represented a client against a major
agricultural 
       equipment manufacturer based in Japan in a trademark
and trade dress  
       infringement action brought in U.S. district court. 
The Japanese 
       company/plaintiff sought over $35 million in damages
and a permanent 
       injunction.  Before the jury could render its
verdict, the Japanese 
       plaintiff offered to settle and the client favorably
settled, paying no 
       money in settlement.

    -- Successfully represented one of Korea's largest
commercial banks in 
       three suits against the Bank asserting securities,
RICO, and common law 
       fraud claims and seeking $1.2 billion damages
arising from banking 
       transactions allegedly misrepresented to
participants in 
       stock-for-stock mergers, obtaining dismissal in the
District Court and 
       affirmance by the Second Circuit. The lawsuits arose
out of the failure 
       of Learnout & Hauspie, the then largest
bankruptcy in Europe, and 
       alleged accounting fraud in Learnout & Hauspie
Korea Co., Ltd. Our 
       successful representation in these cases required
closely working with 
       various teams of Korean and Belgian lawyers and
experts, as well as 
       coordinating multi-jurisdictional litigation efforts
in Belgium, Korea 
       and the U.S. 

    Mr. Kim is fluent in Korean and has worked throughout
his career with a number of Asian companies, including
Korean, Japanese and Chinese multi-national companies.

    Mr. Kim's presence in Hong Kong will help serve the
dispute resolution needs of Sidley's expanding client base
in the region, a client base which includes a number of
Asian multinational corporations. In particular, 
Mr. Kim's broad experiences with Korean conglomerates
("chaebols"), Korean financial institutions, and
Korean government agencies will add a significant strength
to nine full-time dedicated dispute resolution lawyers in
Hong Kong. 

    William O. Fifield, Sidley's managing partner of the
firm's Greater China offices, commented, "We are
delighted that Allen has joined us in Hong Kong. He brings
to the region a wealth of experience, complementing both
the litigation and international arbitration practice and
the Korean practice."

    "In a global business environment, we know that to
truly be a full-service law firm, we need to provide
first-class legal advice on the contentious matters that
our Asian clients face, in addition to advising them on
transactional matters. With Allen based in Hong Kong, we
will be able to serve our clients much more effectively and
efficiently."

    Mr. Kim said, "I am very pleased to be joining the
firm's highly-respected litigation practice in Hong Kong and
am looking forward to building upon the momentum that my
colleagues, partner Bill Fifield and counsel, Charles Allen
have begun. Our Asian litigation practice also teams with
our U.S. litigation practice and my move will enhance that
effort."

    As Mr. Kim joins other Korean-speaking lawyers based in
the Hong Kong office, Sidley's top-tier Korea practice* is
gaining recognition as being a one-stop legal service
provider for Korean multinationals and government agencies.


    Notes for Editors

    Sidley is one of the world's largest full-service law
firms, with more than 1,600 lawyers practicing in 15
offices. More than 600 of the lawyers in the firm devote
their practices to litigation, regularly appearing in trial
and appellate courts and in arbitration proceedings
conducted throughout the world.  

    In Asia, Sidley has one of the leading contentious
practices in the region. The litigation group in Hong Kong
is dedicated to resolving contentious matters and operate
across a truly varied range of industry sectors,
representing clients on commercial litigation,
international arbitration and other forms of dispute
resolution throughout Asia. The group's work includes
corporate and commercial dispute resolution, including U.S.
securities disputes, stock exchange, SEC, SFC and other
regulatory investigations as well as intellectual property,
insolvency, antitrust, construction, insurance, shipping,
international trade, employment, and personal injury
matters.  

    *Asia-Pacific Legal 500, 2005/6, Korea section:
"Sidley Austin impresses with the variety and volume
of work handled by its growing Korea practice."

    Chambers Global, 2006, Korea section: "excellent
litigation and arbitration work for which the team is
gaining quite a following in the wake of a string of
notable successes."

    Asian In-House Handbook, 2003/4, Hong Kong section:
"[the] litigation team at Sidley Austin is respected
for its depth of expertise."

    Sidley Austin LLP, a Delaware limited liability
partnership, operates in affiliation with other
partnerships, including Sidley Austin LLP, an Illinois
limited liability partnership, Sidley Austin, an English
general partnership (through which the London office
operates) and Sidley Austin, a New York general partnership
(through which the Hong Kong office operates). The
affiliated partnerships are referred to herein collectively
as Sidley Austin, Sidley or the firm.

    For more information, please contact:

     Allen C. Kim
     Partner
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

     Lisa Kong
     Marketing Manager
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  Sidley Austin