Ryang-Ok Ku

Ms. Ryang-Ok Ku is a senior foreign attorney at Shin & Kim, with more than a decade of direct, practical experience advising on corporate matters in Japan.

Leveraging over 10 years of legal practice in Japan, Ms. Koo focuses her practice on cross-border advisory services between Korea and Japan, with particular emphasis on assisting Korean companies with market entry and ongoing business operations in Japan. Born in Kyoto, Japan, Ms. Koo has developed a broad-based legal background, including experience at a law firm in Osaka, where she advised Korean clients on a wide array of issues such as market entry, establishment and management of Japanese subsidiaries, mergers and acquisitions, licensing, and regulatory compliance. Her expertise also extends to compliance, labor, internal controls, and corporate governance matters involving Korean headquarters and their Japanese subsidiaries or branches. Additionally, she counsels Japanese companies operating in Korea on business operations and related legal and regulatory issues.

Notably, in addition to her law firm experience in Japan, Ms. Koo served as in-house counsel at Blizzard Entertainment, a global gaming company, where she provided direct legal support for the company’s operations in both Korea and Japan. Through this unique in-house perspective she developed a deep understanding of the difference in the legal systems, corporate cultures, and decision-making processes of both countries, enabling her to deliver practical solutions to legal and regulatory challenges faced by headquarters and local subsidiaries or business units. Her work has included drafting and negotiating contracts in Korean, English, and Japanese, as well as advising on Japanese law in the IT and fintech sectors. She has also provided legal support to the Japan business division on core regulatory matters, including the Payment Services Act, the Act on the Display of Prize Information, and the Antimonopoly Act.

Ms. Koo’s litigation experience in Japan is equally extensive, encompassing management control disputes, shareholder derivative actions, criminal cases involving corporate executives, and labor litigation. She successfully represented a plaintiff before the Supreme Court of Japan in a landmark civil damages case related to hate crimes against Koreans residing in Japan. Drawing on this experience, she offers comprehensive counsel on all aspects of Korean companies’ entry into the Japanese market, local business operations, regulatory compliance, and dispute resolution. She also collaborates with Shin & Kim’s experts in multidisciplinary teams to advise Japanese companies operating in Korea on a full spectrum of Korea-related legal issues.

Ms. Koo holds a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Osaka City University Law School. She furthered her academic credentials as a research fellow at New York University School of Law, earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Law from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom, and received a Ph.D. in International Law from Korea University Graduate School.

• Represented a Korean-Japanese citizen in a civil damages action for hate speech
• Advised on import and export, international commercial transactions and contracts for small and medium-sized companies in Japan
• Advised a Korean mobile application company in connection with its launch in Japan
• Advised a Korean start-up company on its entry into Japan
• Represented a defendant in labor appeals
• Advised on game industry, including reviewing and defending against legal risks in the planning of gaming leagues and various global events
• Advised on Japanese transfer of personal information to third parties and matters in connection with the Personal Information Protection Act
• Advised on the Funds Settlement Act and Electronic Commerce Act of Japan