2007'02.04.Sun
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: +852-2509-7872 Email: akim@sidley.com Lisa Kong Marketing Manager Tel: +852-2509-7899 Email: lkong@sidley.com SOURCE Sidley Austin
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