Sunghee Chae

Practice Areas

Data Privacy & Cybersecurity, TMT, Digital Health, Digital Finance, TMT Litigation, Data Protection Litigation, IP Transactions & Licensing, Trade Secret - Company Information Protection, AeroSpace, Tech & AI

Career

• 2016-Present Partner, Lee & Ko

• 2010-2016 Senior Legal Counsel, Samsung Electronics

• 2006-2009 Associate, BAE, KIM &LEE LLC

Professional Memberships

• Admitted to bar, Korea : 2006

• Member, Working Group for Research of Policies for Data Protection, 2022 – Present

• Member, Open Data Mediation Committee: 2021 – Present

• Member, The Advisory Committee for Financial Supervision Service, IT Branch : 2021 – Present

• Member, The Evaluation of Laws and Regulations Committee of the PIPC: 2018.6.- 2020

• Member, Korea Association for Informedia Law

• CIPP(EU) : 2015 – 2016

Publications

• Right to be forgotten in Google ECJ ruling(case No. C-131/12): from a Korean perspective (Law & Technology, Vol.10, No.4, 2014)

• A comparative study between European laws and Korean laws on purpose limitation and restriction to profiling and automated individual decision making (Law&Technology, Vol.12, No.1, 2016)

• On the concept of the right on informational self-determination in Korea and Germany (Journal of Korea Information Law, Vol.20, No.3, 2016)

• On the concept of personal information: comparative study of the data protection laws of EU, Germany, UK, Japan and Korea (master’s thesis, Seoul National University, 2017)

• Main Issues in Korea regarding consent for the Processing of Personal Information, with Emphasis on Recent Supreme Court Cases (Journal of Korean Law, Vol.17, No.1, 2017)

• Study on the regulation of online platform and targeted advertising in terms of antitrust and data protection laws – based on the review of the Facebook case in Germany (Journal of Law & Economic Regulation, Vol.15, No.1, 2022)

Personal

As a partner at Lee & Ko whose practice covers a broad range of technology-related matter, Ms. Sunghee Chae is actively involved in the following practice groups: Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT), Data Protection & Privacy, IP, Fintech, Regulatory Compliance.

Since being admitted to the Korean Bar in 2006, Ms. Chae has developed special expertise concerning regulatory compliance especially in connection with data protection and privacy matters. She has advised numerous businesses on a wide range of data protection issues, including cross-border data transfers, online behavioral advertising, big data systems and employee monitoring. Recently, she has also advised a leading Korean financial institution on issues related to Fintech and blockchain technology.

Ms. Chae also has extensive experience in IP matters, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and employee inventions, and has handled many high-profile court litigation cases and international arbitration cases. As of late, she has been actively advising clients on copyright issues related to open-source software.

Languages Spoken

Korean, English, German(written), Japanese

Work Highlights

• Advised Samsung Electronics on its global data protection strategy and policy as head of the Global Data Protection Compliance Taskforce

• Advising the largest financial group in Korea on issues related to data protection, Fintech, and blockchain technology

• Advising multinational pharmaceutical companies on global data protection issues

• Advised a German car manufacturer on various data protection issues

• Advised a leading Korean heavy industry company on open source software issues

• Represented a Korean financial company in data breach litigation

• Represented a leading Korean heavy industry company in a trade secrets case

• Represented a Korean game company in a copyright infringement case against a Japanese game company

• Represented a Korean car manufacturer in an international arbitration matter

Awards

Education