Korean firm Bae Kim & Lee (BKL) has strengthened its intellectual property litigation practice with the onboarding of Kitaik Lee, formerly a judge for 36 years and one of the country’s Supreme Court justices from 2015 to 2021.
“Lee handled a wide range of IP cases while he was serving at the Patent Court and the IP division of the Seoul High Court, and also established precedents in this field during his tenure at the Supreme Court,” Wucheol Song, one of the managing partners at BKL, told Asia Business Law Journal.
“Based on his practical experience and expertise, we expect him to provide clients with optimal solutions that meet their needs.”
Lee, admitted to the Korean bar in 1984, began his legal career as a judge at the Seoul Civil District Court in 1985 and subsequently held judicial positions for more than three decades, including a chief presiding judge of the Patent Court and a presiding judge of the Seoul High Court. After serving a six-year term as a Supreme Court justice, he became a distinguished professor at Sogang University Law School in 2022.
At BKL, Lee will contribute to the firm’s litigation group and litigation support team, which is led by managing partner Song. BKL also noted that Lee would work for the BKL Pro Bono Committee and Dongcheon Foundation, a public interest entity that belongs to BKL.
During his tenure at the Supreme Court, Lee rendered a decision that installation of wheelchair-only seats on metropolitan buses facing sideways rather than forward constituted discrimination against people with disabilities, which was perceived as a major step forward in human rights awareness in South Korea.
