Korean firm DLG Law Corporation breaks into the US market, opening its first office in San Jose, with the expectation of supporting Korean companies’ outbound investment into Silicon Valley.
Senior foreign attorney Deborah Youn Soo Lee will head the new San Jose branch, which is DLG’s second North American outfit, following the Vancouver office launched in 2022.
“Initially, when we established the Vancouver office, we believed it would be effective to manage US-related work from there. However, in practice, we realised the need for frequent client consultations and interactions, either via calls or in-person meetings, at a closer proximity, prompting us to open an office in Silicon Valley,” Won H Cho, the senior managing partner of DLG, told Asia Business Law Journal.
Cho said the new office had two main objectives; the first was to assist Korean companies entering Silicon Valley and the second was to help Silicon Valley investors with investing in Korea startups. “We intend to meet a lot of local VCs [venture capitalists],” added Cho.
Lee is now the only permanently based lawyer in San Jose, but DLG has plans to hire local lawyers in the US, and lawyers from the Seoul office may also be dispatched to work in the US. A member of the California bar, Lee has extensive experience providing legal counsel to high-tech companies, startups, VC firms and accelerators in Silicon Valley across various areas, including business formation, fundraising, corporate restructuring, employment matters and immigration services.
In addition to the Seoul, San Jose and Vancouver offices, DLG has many overseas branches including in Frankfurt, Beijing, Hanoi, Yangon, Phnom Penh, Bangkok and Ulaanbaatar.
