Personally, it comes down to two main questions when considering my future career as an international (corporate) lawyer. The first question is “will I be good at it?” and the second is “will I enjoy it?” My answers to both of them are yes. Lawyer in general, work in jurisdictions, which by nature are local. But, international lawyers work with clients that have business interests in more than one jurisdiction, and therefore their work usually involves parties from multiple nations. Being born in Korea and having spent most of my life in the US after then, I have become a person who sees the importance of culture in relationship with others, embrace the cultures other than mine, and precisely diagnose on how to resolve a dispute that arises
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For most of the time, international lawyers participate in international commercial arbitration, and try to resolve disputes between two private parties, and come up with a compromise/contract which satisfies both legal and cultural elements of both jurisdictions. So, an international lawyer needs to be aware of the possibility that the cultural differences between the two parties could have a significant impact on the outcome of dispute resolution. For example, there is a big difference between the East Asian and Western cultures in their approach to conflict resolution in arbitration. The East Asian culture, especially that of Japan, prefers non-confrontational methods of conflict resolution, in which litigations are avoided and conciliatory behavior is encouraged in the decision-making processes. Due to a feudal regime that has lasted over 200 years, during which people were not allowed to practice law, the tendencies to promote conciliatory settlement of disputes deeply rooted in Japanese communities and became their distinct culture, as well as in other East Asian countries. Consequently, when a Western-cultured party and an Eastern-cultured party join for International Commercial Arbitration, the arbitrator in charge needs to be fully aware of the possibility that the Eastern may draw different inferences from overly confrontational arguments of the Western, and …show more content…
A perfect incidence that vividly shows the importance of culture in the world of business is the 1997 Korean financial crisis, which was mainly caused by the excessive government intervention in the market favoring the conglomerates that had the intimate ties with the government at the expense of discriminating against other domestic firms in the market. So, Korea had to be bailed out and received financial support from IMF, in agreement of increasing its transparency of the industrial and financial sector by ending the long-standing friendship between the government and large conglomerates. However, even after the bitter lesson from the financial crisis, the back-scratching alliance between the government and the conglomerates failed to be removed but instead managed to rampantly thrive even until today in Korea. Notably, this cannot be explained unless a more complete understanding of South Korea’s culture, philosophical backgrounds, and the history takes place. “Chaebol” is a unique Korean word that not only indicates family-oriented conglomerates, but also sub-culturally implies of noble birth, aspired, and chosen figures to lead the country. This distinct image of chaebols in Korea, which have strongly developed among the people
For most of the time, international lawyers participate in international commercial arbitration, and try to resolve disputes between two private parties, and come up with a compromise/contract which satisfies both legal and cultural elements of both jurisdictions. So, an international lawyer needs to be aware of the possibility that the cultural differences between the two parties could have a significant impact on the outcome of dispute resolution. For example, there is a big difference between the East Asian and Western cultures in their approach to conflict resolution in arbitration. The East Asian culture, especially that of Japan, prefers non-confrontational methods of conflict resolution, in which litigations are avoided and conciliatory behavior is encouraged in the decision-making processes. Due to a feudal regime that has lasted over 200 years, during which people were not allowed to practice law, the tendencies to promote conciliatory settlement of disputes deeply rooted in Japanese communities and became their distinct culture, as well as in other East Asian countries. Consequently, when a Western-cultured party and an Eastern-cultured party join for International Commercial Arbitration, the arbitrator in charge needs to be fully aware of the possibility that the Eastern may draw different inferences from overly confrontational arguments of the Western, and …show more content…
A perfect incidence that vividly shows the importance of culture in the world of business is the 1997 Korean financial crisis, which was mainly caused by the excessive government intervention in the market favoring the conglomerates that had the intimate ties with the government at the expense of discriminating against other domestic firms in the market. So, Korea had to be bailed out and received financial support from IMF, in agreement of increasing its transparency of the industrial and financial sector by ending the long-standing friendship between the government and large conglomerates. However, even after the bitter lesson from the financial crisis, the back-scratching alliance between the government and the conglomerates failed to be removed but instead managed to rampantly thrive even until today in Korea. Notably, this cannot be explained unless a more complete understanding of South Korea’s culture, philosophical backgrounds, and the history takes place. “Chaebol” is a unique Korean word that not only indicates family-oriented conglomerates, but also sub-culturally implies of noble birth, aspired, and chosen figures to lead the country. This distinct image of chaebols in Korea, which have strongly developed among the people