Hee-Chul Hwang is an attorney in the Anti-Corruption & Corporate Compliance, Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense, Corporate Governance Practices at Kim & Chang, who also practices primarily in the areas of cross-border, multi-jurisdictional Investigation defense, criminal customs and criminal tax defense.

Mr. Hwang has vast experience in various domestic and international corporate compliance issues, especially issues related to AML, FCPA, FATCA, customs, tax, breach of trust and various sanction-related regimes. More significantly, he has comprehensive practical knowledge and acumen about the business practices in Korea.

Mr. Hwang brings to Kim & Chang more than 25 years of experience as a public prosecutor. While serving as a public prosecutor, Mr. Hwang led many high profile corporate criminal investigations. As a result, he has extensive experience and expertise on matters dealing with corporate crime, white collar crime, criminal investigative practices of prosecution service and police, and other criminal procedure law-related issues. Since he had been assigned to various positions in the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (SPO) during his tenure, he is well versed in all matters regarding the MOJ and the SPO. Also, he has in-depth experience and proficiency in areas regarding immigration, correction & rehabilitation, parole, and amnesty because he was in charge of these matters during his service at the MOJ.
Mr. Hwang’s legal career began as Judge Advocate in the ROK Army. In 1986, he was appointed as a prosecutor and was assigned consecutively to the Gwangju Prosecutors' Office, the Jinju Prosecutors’ Office, the Seoul Prosecutors’ Office, the International Legal Affairs Division of the MOJ Legal Affairs Bureau, and the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office. From 1995 to 1997, he was a professor in the Judicial Research and Training Institute, and was named a panelist in the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization. In 1998, he became Director of the Special Investigation Department at the Busan Prosecutors’ Office. After he served as Chief of the Office of Criminal Intelligence of the SPO from 1999 to 2001, he was appointed as Director of the 1st Prosecution Division at the MOJ in 2001, the most aspired assignment in the prosecutorial system.

Subsequently, he was designated as Head of the Pyeongtaek Prosecutors’ Office in 2002. He then served as Deputy Chief of the Ulsan Prosecutors' Office in 2003, Chief of the Planning & Coordination Bureau of the MOJ in 2004, and 1st Deputy Chief of the Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office in 2005. In 2006, he was promoted to Chief Prosecutor and served as Director of the Planning and Coordination Bureau at the MOJ as well as Deputy Chief of the Daegu High Prosecutors’ Office. In the following year, he became Director of the Criminal Trial and Civil Litigation Department of the SPO. From 2007 to 2008, he was a member of the Sentencing Commission of the Supreme Court. He then was appointed as Chief of the Gwangju Prosecutors’ Office and the Seoul Southern Prosecutors’ Office successively. Subsequently in 2009, he was inaugurated as the 53rd Vice Minister of the MOJ and was designated both as Chairperson of the Parole Commission for Inmates and as Chairperson of the Probation & Parole Commission. For two years he served as Vice Minister, he also served as a member of the Amnesty Committee and the Government Employee Ethics Committee. In 2011, he resigned his position as Vice Minister and joined Kim & Chang.