Jeong-Hyun Son

Ms. Jeong-Hyun Son is a partner at Shin & Kim, mainly practicing in the areas of Food, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Medical Service, Healthcare & Life Sciences Disputes, Response to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s Investigation and Investigation and Administrative Disposition, General Criminal Defense and Corporate Investigation & White Collar Crime.

From 2008 to February 2025, Ms. Son served as a prosecutor and chief prosecutor for about 17 years, mainly in food and drug divisions, such as the Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, and the Food and Drug Investigation Division of the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office. During her two-year secondment to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, she served as a special investigation planner, deputy head of the Pan-government Bad Food Eradication Task Force, and head of the Pan-government Imported Food Task Force, and unusually for a lawyer, she went to a graduate school for food engineering and obtained a master’s degree in food engineering, adding to her already extensive expertise and experience in food and drug cases.

With considerable expertise she has gained as above, Ms. Son, after retiring from the prosecution, has been actively serving as a member of a variety of committees under the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, including the Regulatory Science Innovation Committee, Internal Regulatory Review Committee, and the Administrative Disposition Review Committee, and a member of the Labeling and Advertising Self-Regulation Review Committee of the Korea Health Functional Food Association and an expert advisor for the Food Business Support Center under the Korea Food Industry Association. In addition to conducting investigations and prosecutions for more than 10 years in food and drug divisions, Ms. Son has handled a variety of food and drug cases, drug rebate cases, office manager hospital cases, and medical malpractice cases, with complex and specific issues. She has also given lectures on investigative practice in food and drug cases to food and drug prosecutors nationwide, and written several academic papers based on her accumulated investigative cases and experiences, actively contributing to the development of the industries and sectors of foods, drugs and healthcare in institution and practice.. In recognition of her expertise, Ms. Son has been certified by the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office as a Certified Professional Prosecutor in Food Safety, a rare distinction for a prosecutor.

In addition, Ms. Son has handled criminal cases in various fields, including technology leakage, special, environmental, and sexual violence, while serving as a chief prosecutor and prosecutor at various levels of prosecutors’ offices. As a professor at the Yongin Branch of the Korea Institute of Justice, she lectured new prosecutors on prosecutorial practice based on her in-depth knowledge of general criminal cases and excellent practical competence. Ms. Son provides her clients with top-notch legal advisory services on a range of food and drug cases with an extraordinary strength distinguished by her ability to grasp key issues with precision and deliver outstanding step-by-step defense strategies across all stages of regulatory review, preliminary counselling, investigation, administrative disposition and litigation.

Investigation and Litigation

• Handled a case on a violation of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act related to pharmaceutical rebates involving a leading Korean pharmaceutical company
• Handled cases on violations of the Medical Service Act and the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, and fraudulent insurance claims, by numerous hospitals, clinics and pharmacies
• Handled cases on violations of the Medical Service Act related to allegations of the operation of corporate-owned illegal hospitals by MSOs, medical foundations, etc.
• Responded to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s investigations and administrative dispositions related to violations of the Food Sanitation Act by a large Korean food company
• Responded to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s investigations and administrative dispositions related to the unauthorized sale of medicines and medical devices
• Handled cases on false and/or misleading labeling and advertising for food, health functional food and cosmetic products
• Filed a complaint on behalf of a client in a case on counterfeit cosmetic/health functional food products
• Handled a case on violations of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act committed during a pharmaceutical company’s clinical trial

Advisory Service

• Provided advisory services on internal investigation and compliance for large companies, multinational companies, luxury hotels, etc.
• Provided pre-release regulatory and labeling/advertising review services for pharmaceutical, food and cosmetics companies
• Provided advisory services on responses to medical malpractice cases, fraudulent insurance claims and licenses/permits for hospitals and clinics
• Provided advisory services on the handling of a foreign matter contamination incident for a multinational liquor company
• Provided advisory services on the handling of food poisoning and foreign matter contamination incidents for a multinational food company