The Korea Times reports…
Foreign, Korean law firms to offer joint legal service
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/08/116_184206.html
Foreign and domestic law firms will be able to set up joint operations as early as July next year, the Ministry of Justice said Tuesday.
The ministry submitted a revision bill of the Foreign Legal Consultant Act to the National Assembly in the third stage of opening of the nation’s legal service market.
The revision follows free trade agreements with the European Union and the United States on the legal service market.
Under the revision, the joint law firms will be able to hire both domestic and foreign lawyers to provide legal consultant services about foreign laws and limited services regarding domestic laws.
For a joint law firm, both the foreign and Korean law firms have to have at least three years of operation history and more than five lawyers each with over five years of experience. A foreign firm can have up to a 49 percent of stake in the joint firm.
Joint firms between Korea and European firms will be available from July next year and those between Korea and U.S. ones, March 2017, according to respective agreements.