Cheol Hwan CHOI - Kim & Chang

Bio

Cheol Hwan Choi is a senior attorney with over 24 years of wide-ranging litigation and investigation experience in both the public and private sectors. He is a key member of the firm’s Litigation, Antitrust & Competition, Tax Audit & Tax Dispute Resolution, and Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense Practices.

Before joining Kim & Chang, Mr. Choi served in the judiciary for 17 years, first as a judge and later, as a presiding judge in various district courts in Korea. He also served as a research judge of the Supreme Court of Korea, responsible for researching and reporting on various civil, criminal and tax law issues. During his tenure as a judge, he presided over a wide range of civil, criminal and tax litigations.

Notably, in the Korean judiciary, Mr. Choi was the sole judge in the Seoul Central District Court, responsible for the arrest warrants of high-ranking government officials and business tycoons. In 2004, the Supreme Court of Korea and Cambridge University awarded him the opportunity to serve on the law faculty as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University. In 2010, he was a visiting fellow at the US Federal Judicial Center, also at the request of the Supreme Court of Korea.

From 2016 to 2017, Mr. Choi served as the Secretary to the President of Republic of Korea. As Cheong Wa Dae (Blue House) counsel, he advised on all legal issues pertaining to the Korean government’s policies, and coordinated all antitrust-related issues concerning the Korean government.

Mr. Choi received his LL.B. in 1985 and his LL.M. in 1996, both from Kyunghee University. In 1994, he graduated from the Judicial Research and Training Institute of the Supreme Court of Korea. Mr. Choi also was a visiting researcher at Georgetown Law School in 2010, and completed his doctoral coursework at Kyunghee University in 2004. He is admitted to the Korea bar.

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Profile

Experience

Kim & Chang (2011.3.-2016.5., 2017.6.-Present)

Secretary to the President for Legal Affairs, Office of the President (2016.5.-2017.5.)

Presiding Judge, Seongnam Branch, Suwon District Court (2010-2011)

Visiting Fellow (as a foreign judge), Federal Judicial Center, Washington, D.C. (2010)

Presiding Judge, Suwon District Court (2010)

Presiding Judge, Busan District Court (2009-2010)

Judge, Seoul Central District Court (2008-2009)

Judge, Supreme Court of Korea (2006-2008)

Judge, Seoul Central & Eastern District Court (2001-2006)

Judge, Chungju Branch Court of Cheongju District Court (1998-2001)

Judge, Seoul Central & Northern District Court (1994-1998)

Representative Mattersshow

Represented a major Korean petrochemical company in obtaining a judgment of acquittal from the Supreme Court of Korea regarding violation of the reporting requirement under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.
Represented a leading Korean ink company in its appeal, seeking the cancellation of the Korean tax authority’s confirmation of illegal tariff classification of the imported products.
Represented the head of a leading Korean chemical company on fraud allegations, and obtained a determination of “no violation” from the Korean Fair Trade Commission.
Represented certain member companies of a Korean conglomerate group in their administrative court proceeding against the KFTC’s administrative fine sanctions for alleged unfair assistance in connection with certain affiliate transactions. The Seoul High Court revoked the KFTC’s sanctions, agreeing to the client’s claim that the KFTC’s normal prices used to determine the provision of unfair assistance do not have a proper legal ground.
Represented a holding company in a case involving a violation of the restrictions on holding companies’ conduct and argued against the necessity and culpability of criminal punishment, successfully exempting the company from the KFTC’s criminal referral.
Represented Korean steel- and railroad-related companies in a case concerning a collusive act, and minimized the amount of administrative fines imposed by the KFTC by arguing about the establishment of the act and the illegality of the calculation method of relevant sales revenue.

Representative Activitiesshow

Awards

Litigation Star, Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific: Competition/Antitrust (Euromoney, 2022-2023)

Publications/Activities

Research on the Value Added Tax about Business Transfer and Closing Down Business (Commentaries on Supreme Court Decisions, 2008)
An Examination of Whether Contract of Suretyship Can Constitute Administration or Disposition of an Unincorporated Association's Joint Property (Jurist, 2007)
English Legal Procedure on the Summary Offences (Korean Lawyers Association Journal, 2006)
English Sentencing Guidelines System (The Justice Journal, 2006)
Relationship with Litigation Structure and Trial Focusing System, Trial Reference of Supreme Court (2004)
Pointing Out the Fact of Indictment (Journal of the Korean Bar Association, 1996)
An Article on Medical Malpractice (Master’s Thesis, 1996)

Education

Georgetown University Law Center (Visiting Researcher, 2010)

Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge (Visiting Scholar, 2004-2005)

Kyunghee University (Completed Doctoral Coursework, 2004)

Kyunghee University (LL.M., 1996)

Judicial Research and Training Institute of the Supreme Court of Korea (1994)

Kyunghee University (LL.B., 1985)

Qualifications

Admitted to bar, Korea, 1994

Languages

Korean and English

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Cheol Hwan CHOI Attorney

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