Jipyong & Jisung Attorneys at Law
11th Floor, The Korea Chamber of Commerce Building
45 Namdaemunro 4-ga, Jung-gu
Seoul, 100-743, Korea
Tel: (82-2) 6200-1910
Fax: (82-2) 6200-0802
cwlee@jipyong.com
www.jipyong.com
A Korean maritime lawyer Choon-Won Lee, also widely known as CW Lee to
both the domestic and international shipping societies, is now the most
well-noted as being a leading maritime lawyer representing the new
generation of Korean shipping society.
CW Lee graduated from the Seoul National University, School of Law in
Korea and obtained LL.B. in 1988. He completed the graduate school at
the Korea Maritime University in 2001 and LL.M. at the University of
Southampton, England in 2003 specialising in the maritime law stream.
He passed the High Level Government Officer Examination in 1988 and the
Bar Examination in 1990 where he was admitted to the Korean bar in 1993
after completing two-year course at the Judicial Research and Training
Institute conducted by the Supreme Court of Korea.
He started his profession as a young attorney at Lee & Ko in 1993
and dedicated himself to excellence in the practice of maritime law as a
long-time partner at Choi & Kim. In October 2008, he joined Jisung
Horizon and launched a maritime team, which is now one of the most
respected maritime teams in Korea.
His practice involves all aspects of maritime, aviation, insurance and
reinsurance offering a wide range of high-quality and efficient legal
services in both dry and wet matters including charter party disputes,
cargo claims, collisions, fire, oil-pollution, ship building, ship lease
and ship finance issues. He represents most of the major P&I Clubs,
ship owners including large-scale Korean ship owners, aviators and
insurers worldwide and nationwide in numerous cases.
Indeed, he handled various noteworthy shipping and maritime matters such
as the Hyundai Fortune, which is recorded as one of the largest
casualty cases in the worldwide shipping society with the estimated
total amount of dispute in approximately US$1.5 billion including the
cargo claims of US$0.5 billion. The Hyundai Fortune, a
Panamanian-flagged vessel, was set on fire near the ship’s stern while
navigating in the vicinity of Port Aden, Yemen in March 2006, while CW
Lee successfully persuaded the court to dismiss all claims against the
owners of Hyundai Fortune, and obtained a nil assessment decision in the
limitation proceeding which is unprecedented in the Korean judicial
history.
His recent litigation success includes the Seongho Pioce case, an
international collision matter where he obtained a favorable decision
from the Korean Marine Safety Tribunal to the effect that the vessel had
not collided with a Chinese fishing boat. This decision has been
regarded as important and exceptional in that it has overturned the
conclusion of the Chinese government’s investigation report.
On the other hand, in late 2008 when the worldwide shipping market was
in crisis, he actively engaged in various charterparty disputes, and his
practice recently focuses more on shipbuilding disputes and the
rehabilitation of domestic shipping companies.