Sang Jin Han, a cross-border M&A veteran with nearly 30 years of experience at global outfit Cleary Gottlieb, is joining Korea’s top law firm by headcount Kim & Chang with his team of three.
Han’s team members are associates Ji-won Lim, Jae Sung Kim and Ki Won Ahn from the Cleary M&A team in Korea.
Having been a partner at Cleary since 2005, Han led the firm’s M&A team at the Seoul office. Kyung Taek Jung, one of the managing partners at Kim & Chang, told Asia Business Law Journal that he was expecting significant synergy following Han’s addition.
“Han and his team will be responsible for cross-border corporate, PE and M&A work. Based on their extensive experience in global M&A work, they will provide close support for domestic clients’ overseas M&A activities and, together with other colleagues from the firm, actively advise foreign clients on inbound M&A matters,” said Jung.
Han is known for his extensive expertise in cross-border M&As between global and domestic companies, as well as providing legal counsel to global private equity funds.
His track record includes large-scale deals, such as MBK Partners’ USD6.1 billion acquisition of Homeplus from Tesco, the establishment of a joint venture between Naver and SoftBank and the business integration between LINE and Z Holdings, and the CBC consortium’s USD1.5 billion acquisition of Hugel from Bain Capital.
Han joined Cleary Gottlieb in 1996 in New York, where he worked until 2008. He spent six years in Hong Kong, from 2008 to 2014, before relocating to Seoul, where he has been based since then. Han has been included in ABLJ’s Korea Top 100 Lawyers, known as the A-List, three times in 2021, 2022 and 2024.
