By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Korean law firms, or at least the leading ones, have been carrying themselves as the big fish in a small pond.
However, with the recent free-trade pact between Korea and the United States expected to open the long-shut doors of the country’s legal market, domestic law firms are to face the same challenges of any business competing against larger foreign rivals in the arena of globalization.
And whether they will succeed in building up the financial and human resources to hold their own against the U.S. competitors on their home turf, as well as retaining their globally-minded corporate clients looking to further expand internationally, could be anybody’s guess.
``Should U.S. law firms establish domestic branches and hire Korean lawyers to practice both in local and American law, you could say that this leaves little reason for Korean businesses, especially the bigger ones that have their own team of in-house lawyers, to seek the services of a Korean law firm,’’ said Moon Jae-wan, a professor of law at Hankook University of Foreign Studies.