Seong Hwan Kim Joins Century City Office

(June 29, 2006, Century City, CA)—Steptoe & Johnson LLP , an international litigation, regulatory, and corporate law firm, announced today that Seong Hwan Kim will join the firm’s Century City office, as a litigation partner. 

Mr. Kim was formerly a litigation partner at Christensen, Glaser, Fink, Jacobs, Weil & Shapiro, in Los Angeles.

“Seong brings us a depth and breadth of litigation experience and strong connections within the international business community on three continents,” said Roger Warin, Steptoe’s Managing Partner.  “He is an exceptional addition to a new office in which we eventually expect to have some 50 attorneys.   Seong and the four partners we earlier announced as part of the Century City startup team will play key roles in creating a strong foundation from which we can significantly expand our presence on the West Coast.”

In mid-June, Steptoe named Mark A. Neubauer, Rebecca Edelson, Katessa Charles Davis, and Meredith M. Moss, all formerly with Alschuler Grossman Stein and Kahan, LLP in Santa Monica, as new partners in the Century City office.   The firm has long had an active office in downtown Los Angeles with 19 lawyers who work primarily in the firm's top-tier toxic tort and ERISA practices. 

Mr. Kim, a 1993 graduate of UCLA Law School, has developed a broad litigation practice that includes entertainment, intellectual property, real estate, securities and other business litigation.  He received a B.S. in Business Administration with honors from the Walter A. Haas School of Business, at the University of California, Berkeley, with an emphasis in Finance and Accounting. 

Mr. Kim represents multi-media companies, producers, agents, and entertainers; banks and other financial institutions; venture capitalists; technology companies; real estate developers and construction companies; hotels and casinos; officers and directors; and government officials and municipalities.  Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Kim secured a landmark victory on a writ petition to determine the rights of minority shareholders to dissolve and liquidate the corporation in the highly publicized Idealab case, and secured summary judgment for the City of Monterey Park in a lawsuit brought by one of its City Councilmen.

Having spent his early childhood in South Korea, Mr. Kim is fluent in Korean and represents Korean and other Asian companies in a variety of commercial and corporate litigation matters.   He also represents Latin American and US Spanish language media companies in entertainment and copyright litigation.

“My practice has remained interesting partly because I have been able to handle a variety of matters for a large range of clients, domestic and foreign,” Mr. Kim said.  “Steptoe has a prominent and respected international litigation, trade, and regulatory practice that is rapidly growing.  For example, Grace Parke Fremlin, who focuses on Korea, China, and Japan, joined the firm’s Washington, DC, office last year.  John Lovi in the firm’s New York City office has long represented major Korean companies in complex securities and derivatives matters in both US and international tribunals.  I look forward to helping expand that capability.  I am excited about joining a firm with such a broad platform and which offers my current clients additional depth in areas such as international arbitrations and in international trade, regulatory, immigration, and First Amendment matters.  I am also looking forward to working with the highly respected trial lawyers in Steptoe’s downtown Los Angeles office, such as Laurence Janssen, Lawrence Riff, and Kevin Mayer, who literally have tried hundreds of case—significantly more than most lawyers try in their entire career.”

Mr. Kim lectures on legal topics, most recently including the Orange County Bar Association's trial technique seminar.   He has been repeatedly identified as a Southern California Super Lawyer in an independent survey conducted by a local publisher.

Steptoe’s Century City office will be located in the Fox Plaza, located at 2121 Avenue of the Stars, in the heart of one of the world's premiere business districts.   This will be the seventh office for Steptoe, which currently has offices in downtown Los Angeles, Washington, DC, New York City, Phoenix, London, and Brussels.