Yoon & Yang LLC held a seminar with The Federation of Korean Industries on how corporations should respond to changing policy and legislative environments in the second half. It was an occasion to review, from the corporate perspective, shifts in the government's governance direction and regulations in labor, industry and fair trade.
Yoon & Yang LLC said on the 2nd that it hosted the seminar "Korea in transition: tasks and opportunities for corporations" with The Federation of Korean Industries at the Yoon & Yang Training Center in ASEM Tower, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. About 100 people attended, including in-house counsel and those in external relations, strategic planning and public relations at corporations.
The seminar was prepared to review legislative and regulatory issues that corporations should watch as the National Assembly prepares to form its leadership after the June 3 local elections. It featured a special lecture by Kim Tae-nyeon, Chairperson of the Democratic Party of Korea's Special Committee on Balanced National Development, and topic-by-topic presentations by Yoon & Yang advisers who previously served as high-ranking public officials, including former Vice Ministers.
In the special lecture, Chairperson Kim introduced the Lee Jae-myung administration's three mega projects as "a winning move in a time of great transition." The three mega projects are a plan to foster advanced strategic industries—such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, and physical AI and robots—linked with regional hubs. Chairperson Kim said related legislation will be pushed in the National Assembly in the second half.
Lim Seo-jeong, a Yoon & Yang adviser who presented on labor, summarized the pillars of the Lee Jae-myung administration's labor policy as narrowing gaps, guaranteeing rights, reducing actual working hours and safety. Lim cited as tasks that corporations should review amendments to the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, extending the retirement age, the Basic Act on the Rights of Working People, a presumption-of-employee system, banning abuse of flat-sum wages, equal pay for equal work, and stronger industrial safety rules.
Park Jin-gyu, a Yoon & Yang adviser who presented on industry, said corporations face an environment where the AI revolution, economic security, and demographic and social-structure changes overlap. Park said the second-half legislative trend should be viewed not as simple regulation but from the standpoint of redesigning industrial order, adding that AI and advanced-industry promotion, balanced regional growth, energy transition and stronger economic security will become major variables in corporate management.
In fair trade, Yoon & Yang adviser Shin Young-ho presented regulatory trends and corporate response plans. Shin pointed to stronger reviews in livelihood prices, platforms, power-imbalance relations, internal transactions and digital consumer areas as second-half fair trade issues. As sanctions such as higher penalty surcharge ceilings, price-redetermination orders, long-term reporting obligations and expanded investigative capacity are strengthened, corporations should also shift to a preemptive, pre-check-centered response, Shin said.
Hong Jeong-seok, head of Yoon & Yang's GRC Group, said, "We organized the seminar to help not only corporations' legal teams but also those in external relations, strategic planning and public relations to proactively understand the policy direction of the government and the National Assembly and prepare response strategies."
Yoon & Yang's GRC Group analyzes the policy environment—such as the National Assembly, the government, regulators and the media—to support corporations in responding to regulatory risks. Yoon & Yang plans to share government and National Assembly economic policies and major regulatory issues and provide legal and policy response plans to corporate clients.