Journey Together

On Thursday, December 5, SEUM Law held its client appreciation and networking event, “2024 Night That Moves the World” (SEUM Night), inviting client companies that have grown alongside SEUM. This event, SEUM’s first client appreciation event in nine years since the “SEUM Networking Party” in 2015, was attended by over 120 participants from various sectors, including major investment firms, large corporations, IT companies, and startups.

We are pleased to announce that SEUM Law has been recognized as a leading law firm in Corporate/M&A by Chambers Asia-Pacific 2025, the prestigious legal guide published annually by Chambers and Partners. This marks the second consecutive year SEUM has received this recognition. Additionally, Attorney Hoseok Jung, Managing Partner, has been honored as a leading lawyer in the Corporate/M&A field for the third consecutive year.

SEUM has been selected as an 'Other Notable' firm in the M&A field for the sixth consecutive year in the ‘IFLR1000’, published by the International Financial Law Review (IFLR), a global guide to financial and corporate law firms.

SEUM has once again been named a Highly Recommended Firm in the Technology and Telecommunications sector by Asialaw Profiles 2024, a leading legal publication in Asia.

Attorney Hyun Nam has been named a member of the official Startup Legal Support Committee of the Korea Startup Forum (“KSF”), the country’s largest organization dedicated to supporting startups.

SEUM has ranked first in the number of deals in Bloomberg's Q1 2024 M&A League Table for Korea.

SEUM handled a total of 20 investment and merger & acquisition advisory cases in the first quarter alone, representing clients such as Hashed and 500 Global.

SEUM is excited to announce the launch of 'SEUM Rocket,' an all-in-one service designed specifically for early-stage startups.

SEUM Rocket leverages SEUM's extensive experience and expertise in supporting startups. It is available to startups with cumulative investment amounts of less than 1 billion KRW. By using SEUM Rocket, startups can access various services—ranging from commercial registration tasks like incorporation and capital increase, to investment and operational advisory, litigation tasks such as drafting demand letters and complaint documents, and tax accounting services—at an average cost reduction of 30-40%.

The legal services will be provided by SEUM's junior experts, while tax services will be led by SEUM Tax.

Attorney Seungkyu Byun of SEUM has been selected as a Rising Star in the 'M&A·PE·FUND' category in the '2023 JoongAng Ilbo Attorney Evaluation,' jointly conducted by JoongAng Ilbo and the Korean In-house Lawyers Association.

In October 2023, SEUM Law (hereinafter 'SEUM') welcomed 'Senior Foreign Attorney Jihoon (Paul) Choi,' an expert in corporate legal matters and blockchain/virtual assets.

Senior Foreign Attorney Jihoon (Paul) Choi is a licensed attorney in the District of Columbia, USA. Before joining SEUM, he accumulated years of experience at the law firm Barun, where he handled corporate legal tasks such as foreign investment, M&A, IP/licenses, and labor law. Particularly, he focused on providing advice on comprehensive issues, ranging from cross-border investments to joint ventures, finance, and private equity. He also represented numerous international litigation and arbitration cases.

SEUM advised semiconductor component manufacturer MECARO Co., Ltd. in a cross-border transaction for the acquisition of its chemical business division by Merck, a global technology company, in a transaction valued at approximately EUR 110 million.

SEUM was announced as one of Asia’s fastest growing firms in 2022 by Asian Legal Business (ALB) which is under ownership of Thomson Reuters, a global media conglomerate that delivers intelligent information in finance, law, tax, and intellectual property (IP), among others.

SEUM would like to convey sincere appreciation for all your support. SEUM will continue to strive to provide excellent legal, IP, and tax services in the coming years.

SEUM provided the legal advisory services throughout the entire process of this investment from the conclusion of the investment agreement to the performance thereof based on a deep understanding of StradVision gained from years of experience.

SEUM advised autonomous driving software developer StradVision in its KRW 31.6 billion Series B funding round, including investments from POSCO Capital, and other VC funds and asset management firms, which resulted in an accumulated fundraising by the company of approximately KRW 47.2 billion.

500 Startups and SEUM launched the latest iteration of the “START Docs” (standardized term agreement for raise transactions) for early stage investments in Korea. 

SEUM successfully represented a client in obtaining a damages award from a Korean court in a design infringement lawsuit.  

SEUM advised Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a Korean pharmaceutical company in its establishment of a joint venture company with Korea’s leading internet portal company Naver Corporation.

SEUM’s international legal alliance, TAGLaw®, has again been recognized by Chambers & Partners as “Elite” for 2019—the highest ranking awarded to legal networks and alliances. This is the sixth time TAGLaw has received the distinguished “Elite” designation since Chambers & Partners began ranking legal networks and alliances in 2013.

SEUM advised wedding planning platform How To Marry in connection with its recent funding round of KRW 10 billion, which was raised from various institutions including TBT, Korea Development Bank, SV Investment, and Ascendo Ventures.  How To Marry is expected to use the investment proceeds to continue upgrading its service and expand into regions outside of Seoul.

The Legal Times, a leading monthly magazine based in Seoul focusing on the legal industry, featured SEUM in their special 11th anniversary Issue dated November 14, 2018. The article discussing SEUM and its highly regarded startup practice is titled “Our Law Firm in 2018 – “Leading Law Firm for Startups” SEUM” (2018 올해 우리 로펌은…’스타트업 자문 1호’ 세움 in Korea).

SEUM advised NAVER Corporation, Korea’s leading internet portal and mobile company, in connection with Naver’s recent contribution of KRW 99 billion (~USD 88 million) into a 100 billion won venture capital fund devoted to fostering and investing in startups. The SEUM team was comprised of managing partner Hoseok Jung and corporate partner Hyemi Kang; as well as associate Jaewoo Sim.

SEUM has been selected as a “Recommended Firm” in Korea in the area of Technology and Telecommunications, in Asialaw Profiles 2019: The Guide to Asia-Pacific's Leading Domestic and Regional Law Firms.

SEUM represented Huiseoul, a cosmetics e-commerce company, with respect to the initial coin offering (ICO) of its proprietary cryptographic tokens (ticker symbol COSM).

In connection with its expanding international practice, SEUM has been accepted as a member of TAGLaw, a worldwide alliance of more than 155 independent law firms with offices in over 90 countries that provides a full range of legal services to clients all over the world.

SEUM advised Linewalks with respect to its recent funding round through which it raised KRW 1.9 Billion from Kakao Investment. The SEUM team was comprised of partner Hoseok Jung; and associates Bomi Seo and Jaewoo Sim.

SEUM recently advised Cube Intelligence (“CUBE”) with respect to its Initial Coin Offering (“ICO”) of 43.2 million tokens (representing 60% of all tokens issued). The public sale for the CUBE tokens (ticker symbol AUTO), which were also offered for sale by reservation and pre-sale, successfully closed within 24 hours of its launch.

On March 28, 2018, as part of its blockchain seminar series, SEUM will host a discussion regarding “Issues Related to Reverse ICOs.” SEUM’s fourth blockchain seminar will be held at the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies, 18th floor. Managing Partner Hoseok Jung will share insights and thoughts on variety of matters.

On November 8, 2018, Managing Partner Hoseok Jung participated in a press conference held by the Korea Bar Association (the "KBA") at the National Assembly Building in Seoul to advocate for the implementation of blockchain legislation.