[Daeryun] This year’s keywords are ‘global’ and ‘expansion’… New York office opened within the year

Directly managed stores, 36 offices nationwide
Expansion of legal advisory services for domestic and overseas companies
A new security group is also established to protect clients.

Daeryun Law Firm’s keywords this year are ‘global’ and ‘expansion.’ The goal is to expand the legal market itself to provide legal services in various fields by opening a New York office within this year.

The start is the expansion of advisory services starting this year. The idea is to select lawyers who work overseas and have experience dealing with buyers and seamlessly connect legal advisory services for domestic and foreign companies. Starting with the hiring of lawyer Won-il Won (28th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute), who is well-versed in corporate law, including occupational safety and health law, labor law, and trade secret infringement, having worked as a judge and at a large company, in January, we plan to gradually expand the area of ​​international disputes and international transactions. Moving the headquarters to the 35th floor of Park One in Yeouido at the end of this month was also a new start in mind. Representative lawyer Kim Kuk-il (24th class) said, “The current legal market is quite limited as domestic and overseas legal services are blocked by a partition, and the domestic market is largely limited to litigation and corporate consulting.” He added, “In the United States, services where individuals have a ‘dedicated lawyer’ like their doctor and receive various legal assistance are common. This year, our goal is to become a pioneer in expanding various services, both overseas and domestically.”

 

225 lawyers, growing into the top 10 in Korea

The reason Daeryun turned its attention to overseas expansion and service expansion was because it judged that it had opened enough branch offices nationwide that there was no place in the country that Daeryun's legal services could not reach. The 36 branch offices spread out like capillaries across the country, including the most recently opened Gunsan office, are the basis of Daeryun’s pride in ‘good accessibility from anywhere.’ There are five offices in Seoul alone, including the headquarters. Daeryun, which opened in 2018, has grown into one of the top 10 in Korea, with 225 lawyers in 36 offices as of March. There are 550 different experts who provide advice and support.

Daeryun emphasizes that ‘you can receive the same quality service at any office,’ from the Mokpo office where three lawyers work to the headquarters in Seoul. This is because the Seoul headquarters has established a manual that must be followed during litigation. In order to prevent existing cases from being delayed due to a rush of cases, a separate ‘closure manual’ was set up to focus on completing cases on time.

Representative attorney Kook-il Kim explained, “Because there is a unified manual, you can expect the same litigation response without being negligent in responding to even the smallest of local cases. For larger, more complex, or specialized cases, a collaborative lawyer is assigned from a large office in Seoul or nearby to respond together.”

In arrest cases, meeting with the defendant also plays a significant role, but it is not only difficult to schedule a meeting time, but it is also common to spend several hours just traveling to the detention center if the detention center is far away. Daeryun receives support from an office near the detention center and improves efficiency by dividing and collaborating in the form of taking on reception work together. The closer you are, the easier it is to meet with you on a regular basis, which is more advantageous in protecting the client's right to defense.

This system is possible because all of Daeryun’s branch offices are operated as ‘direct branches’ of the headquarters. The headquarters directly manages the hiring of lawyers as well as allocation of major cases, and coordinates manpower support and distribution when necessary. For example, when Mokpo, the smallest branch office, received a case involving dozens of clients and worth billions of dollars, several lawyers from Seoul and Busan were brought in to work as a team. Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan, Gwangju, and Suwon, where the national high courts are located, serve as base offices and are responsible for practical work, such as manpower support for major cases in nearby regions and case distribution. Since each base office has lawyers in specialized fields, most cases can be resolved within the base.

 

Strengthening the detective group with forensics, security, and specialized lawyers

In the criminal field, the number of cases has increased to 40 to 50 cases per day, or more than 1,000 cases per month, from offices across the country, and we plan to focus our efforts on the criminal investigation group. In particular, the evidence investigation and digital forensics teams, whose importance has recently increased, have been strengthened. The digital forensics team, newly established last year, has four analysts with more than 10 years of experience contributing to the analysis of evidence. The security group was also recently established. Depending on the case, such as stalking or school violence, there may be cases where personal protection of the client is necessary, and safety assurance can be resolved at the same time as the case is taken over.

So far, we have responded to specific areas such as drunk driving, traffic accidents, and sex crimes, and have also recruited experts in areas such as drugs. Kim Yong-tae (30th class), Choi Seong-ho (34th class), Shim Jae-guk (2nd class), Dong-il Park (8th class), Min-kyung Kwon (8th class), and Shin Yong-hoon (9th class) were selected as ‘Special Lawyers’ given by the Bar Association to lawyers who have taken on more than 2.5 times the average number of cases.

The structure of the detective group was also completely reorganized. Attorney Kim In-won (21st class), a former chief prosecutor who has handled numerous murder, corporate embezzlement, and sex crime cases and has a high success rate, served as the head of the group. Each team is headed by a lawyer with more than 20 years of legal experience, including Ahn Seung-jin (28th class), a former chief prosecutor who mainly handled violent crimes such as narcotics, criminal concealment, and violations of the Special Police Act, and Lee Gwang-soo (18th class), a former chief prosecutor who is a veteran of criminal cases such as elections, drugs, and intellectual property rights. An investigation response team was also established, recruiting a number of former police station investigators and allowing them to experience investigation and trial situations in advance through mock investigation rooms and courts.

 

Recruitment of many lawyers specializing in ‘hot’ fields

We have also hired several lawyers specializing in so-called ‘hot’ fields where the number of cases has recently increased. Attorney Kim Young-soo (13th military judge), who joined in January of this year, is a military trial expert who served as head of the Navy Legal Department and military chief judge. Attorney Kwak Min-seop (27th class), a former chief judge, who was in charge of defending many major criminal cases such as the Public Official Election Act, sexual crimes against minors, and arson and murder cases and led them to victory, also made a new home in Daeryun. Daeryun is also operating an election response task force to prepare for the flood of election incidents that will follow the general election.

Representative attorney Kook-il Kim said, “We will strengthen the one-stop legal service with the cooperation system of lawyers, employees, and experts, which is Daeryun’s growth engine, and showcase this overseas to create ‘Global Daeryun’ rather than ‘Korea’s Baker McKenzie (an American multinational law firm).’”
 

[View full article] - [Daeryun] This year’s keywords are ‘global’ and ‘expansion’… New York office opened within the year