Sang-Hyeok Im

Practice Areas

Mr. Sang-Hyeok Im is a partner at Shin & Kim. Mr. Im’s practice focuses on resolving legal disputes related to media companies, contents business (such as broadcasting,internet, games, entertainment, sports, etc.). Mr. Im provides legal advisory services (M&A, financing, development and distribution contract, etc.) and litigation services (copyright, defamation, privacy) to leading broadcasting stations and media contents companies. Based on his extensive experience, he provides one stop service ranging from project planning, contract, distribution, active or passive legal disputes to risk management for media contents companies. Mr. Im is well-known as a lawyer specializing in the areas of cultural and entertainment and is dubbed by the media as “icon in various media disputes” “Korea’s best lawyer in entertainment” “the leading lawyer in the cultural industry” “An expert in contents disputes involving copyrights of IP and IT”. He has been interviewed on Korea’s cultural industry not only by Korean media, but also by famous global media networks such as CNN of the U.S., BBC of the U.K. and NHK of Japan. With the evolution of technology, the business environment surrounding media contents companies is changing on a daily basis. In the midst of such transition, government policies and relevant laws and regulations are also quickly revised, while generating new precedents. Based on up-to-date information and extensive experience, Mr. Im offers the best fitting solutions in this ever changing business environment by capturing the trends and changes in the market, as well as the needs of clients.

Career

Partner, Shin & Kim; Member, Regulation & Administrative Judgement Committee, Office for Government Policy Coordination (2022-Present); Deliberation Member of Special Promotion for Contributing to the Arrest of Election Criminals, National Police Agency (2022-Present); Director, Seoul Performing Arts Company, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (2021-Present); Vice Chairman, Korea Copyright Commission, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (2021-Present); Member, Gender Equality Policy Committee, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (2020-Present); Member, Press Arbitration Commission (2020-Present);

Member, Audit Advisory Committee, Korea Communications Commission (2020-Present); Member, Content Dispute Mediation Committee, Korean Creative Content Agency (2020-Present); Director, Korean Entertainment Law Society (2020-Present); Member, Game Rating Standards Improvement Committee, Game Rating and Administration Committee (2019-Present); Member, AI Policy Forum (2019-Present); President, Korean Game Law and Policy Society (2018-2022); Member (Non-standing Director), Korea Copyright Commission, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (2018-Present); Appraisal Expert Member, Korea Copyright Commission, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (2018-Present); Director, Korean Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law (2018-Present); Mediator (IP Division), Seoul High Court (2017-Present); Auditor, Copyright Overseas Promotion Association (2017-Present); Attorney at Law , Dreier Stein & Kahan LLP, Los Angeles U.S.A. (2008); Attorney at Law/Patent Attorney, Lee International IP & Law Group , Seoul Korea (2003-2007).

Professional Memberships

Korean Bar and Korea Patent Attorneys Association.

Publications

Standard Agreements Between Professional Athletic Teams and Players (Soccer, Baseball, Basketball and Volleyball) and Commentaries (study requested by Korea Professional Sports Association, Sep. 2021); Research of standard work regulations of copyright agent brokerage business and establishment of standard agreement (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism research project, Dec. 2020); Analysis of important court precedents by field in 2019 – Entertainment (The Law Times, 2020); Analysis and Solution of Trade Issues in Exporting Copyrights (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Korea, Copyright Commission, Research Project, 2019); Field-Specific Analysis on Important Cases in 2018-Entertainment (The Lawtimes, 2019); Notable Cases in Advertisement Industry (Korea Advertising Law Society (Co-authored), Korea Internet Advertising Foundation, Jul. 2019); Guidebook for Operation of Galleries and Distribution of Artworks (Galleries Association of Korea (Co-authored, 2019); Artificial Intelligence and Law (Korean Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law, Co-authored (Pakyoungsa, 2019); Report on Research and Development of Standard Agreements in the Arts Sector (Government assignment by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Dec. 2018); Field-Specific Analysis on Important Cases in 2017-Entertainment (The Lawtimes, 2018).

Education