This is what Managing Partner Lee Chun-su (Judicial Research and Training Institute class 32) of law firm LX said when we met at the firm's office in Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 30th of last month. LX is a new law firm established in Nov. last year. Lee, who had worked at Kim & Chang until recently, set up LX with the ambition of helping small and midsize corporations after going independent.
LX was founded around Managing Partner Lee Chun-su, along with fellow Kim & Chang alumni Managing Partners Lee Seung-cheol (class 29) and Moon Jun-seop (class 29). Managing Partner Lee Seung-cheol also worked at the LG Electronics legal group from 2019 to 2023 and left the company as an executive vice president.
Afterward, former Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office chief Jeong Jin-woo (class 29), who retired in Nov. last year, and former human rights officer at the Central District Prosecutors' Office Kim Hyeong-ju (class 32) joined as managing partners. There are currently 15 lawyers at the firm.
The meaning of "LX" is Legal Transformation (in English-speaking countries, "Trans" is written as "X"). Like digital transformation (DX, Digital Transformation), it reflects a determination to bring change to legal services. The interview was conducted with Managing Partners Lee Chun-su and Lee Seung-cheol. The following is a Q&A.
─ What goals did you set when you left Kim & Chang to create law firm LX?
(Attorney Lee Chun-su) "A great many midsize and small corporations want comprehensive legal services but are very worried because the expense is high. We wanted to provide tailored services."
(Attorney Lee Seung-cheol) "There are many cases in which small and midsize corporations do not receive proper legal advice. It is common for legal teams to have no in-house lawyer. If they had received legal advice early, what could have been stopped with a hoe often grows so large that even a shovel cannot stop it. Because of the preconception that 'it costs a lot of money,' they often do not think to seek proper help. So supply and demand exist, but the two sides are failing to find a meeting point."
─ Why is expert legal advice essential?
(Attorney Lee Seung-cheol) "For example, LG Electronics, where I worked, had about 80 in-house lawyers combined in Korea and overseas. Major matters are entrusted to outside counsel, and the 80 mainly review contracts. They review not only large transaction contracts but also contracts for purchasing supplies handled by the general affairs team. Small companies often proceed with even large transaction contracts without lawyer review and later get stuck holding the bag when an accident happens."
(Attorney Lee Chun-su) "Legal assistance is also essential in HR and labor. Regulations have become very strict recently, and in manufacturing there are also industrial accident cases."
─ What do you think is law firm LX's strength?
(Attorney Lee Chun-su) "It's a culture of collaboration. It's a distinctive culture of Kim & Chang: when a case or advisory request comes in, the engaged lawyer does not handle it alone but works together with the in-house expert whose relevant skills are strongest. We are also well trained to dig in until the end."
─ Managing partners and partners have been trained, but junior lawyers have not had those opportunities.
(Attorney Lee Chun-su) "We intend to hire junior lawyers with potential. In my experience, those with a good attitude grow. Even if they are short on so-called 'specs,' junior lawyers with a good attitude, strong writing, and good structural thinking can fully grow into excellent lawyers. In reality, if someone falters on grades because of dating in college, they cannot get into a top law school, but you cannot judge a junior lawyer's potential by such indicators."
─ If you have a case where you helped a small company in crisis.
(Attorney Lee Chun-su) "In livestock sheds, sometimes animals do not grow properly and die early. Livestock businesses must be equipped with a 'dead livestock processor' to handle the carcasses. There was a corporation running a large pig farm, and a spark near the dead livestock processor caused a fire that burned the shed to the ground, resulting in damage of about 10 billion won.
The livestock corporation filed a damages suit against the manufacturer of the dead livestock processor, but the manufacturer was small enough that paying the full amount could have forced the company to shut down. The large law firm representing the livestock corporation argued that the fire was caused by a defect in the dead livestock processor, but I proved that the fire was not caused by a defect in the processor and won a judgment that there was no need to pay even 1 won.
However, we do not focus only on small and midsize corporations. We handle more large-corporation cases and can provide quality legal services across the board."
Law firm LX has several members with science and engineering backgrounds. Managing Partner Lee Chun-su and Attorney Park Min-u majored in mechanical engineering, and the firm also includes lawyers who studied physics education, electronics and electrical engineering, and traditional Korean medicine. There are also two graduates of the Korean National Police University.
─ Looking at your lawyers, those with science and engineering backgrounds and graduates of the Korean National Police University stand out.
(Attorney Lee Chun-su) "We did not hire that way on purpose. However, understanding technology is a major strength in intellectual property (IP) cases and the like. Graduates of the police university are helpful in criminal cases because they know police culture and practices well at the pre-referral stage before cases are sent to prosecutors."