This article was posted on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 3:05 p.m. on Sept. 16, 2025.
As the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) expands inspections of private equity fund (PEF) managers, major domestic large law firms are engaging in fear-based marketing. They appear to be actively targeting the anxiety of PEF managers who do not know when they might become the FSS's inspection targets.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 16th, major domestic large law firms are marketing to member managers of some PEF associations. They are said to be putting former FSS personnel at the forefront, offering to pre-check the FSS's inspection items for PEF managers and prepare them for legal risks.
The managers recently targeted by FSS inspections are MBK Partners and Stonebridge Capital. Each manager has appointed Kim & Chang law firm and Lee & Ko to respond to the inspections. In the case of MBK Partners, additional investigations are ongoing after the inspection, and the inspection of Stonebridge Capital has not yet concluded.
As FSS inspections of PEF managers expand, law firms are enjoying an unexpected boom. The inspections tend to look at all of a manager's overall investment activities rather than focusing on specific issues, so managers that lack legal personnel find it difficult to respond on their own.
A PEF manager said, "Large managers can respond to inspections because they have abundant related personnel led by chief legal officers (CLOs) from large law firms, but most are not like that," and added, "Even managers who invested in compliance with regulations would not be certain that nothing would turn up if the FSS scrutinizes them."
Law firms are targeting managers' anxieties. Although the FSS said in May it would expand inspections of PEF managers to five firms this year, there is no way to know which managers will be targeted. The only clue is that managers with links to the National Pension Service were inspected first.
Industry watchers expect Kim & Chang and Lee & Ko, which are already responding to inspections, to secure an advantageous position in the competition. By responding to the most recent inspections, they gained know-how about which aspects the FSS examined and took issue with, and what kinds of materials it requested.
An IB industry official said, "In MBK Partners' case, the number of Kim & Chang lawyers appointed to respond to the FSS inspection alone reached dozens," adding, "Kim & Chang likely earned substantial revenue from this inspection response alone."