An Update on Korea's Investment and Legal Climate

Tom Pinansky, Senior Foreign Attorney, Barun Law, Seoul

Financial Services Committee

Tom Pinansky, senior foreign attorney at Barun Law in Seoul, will provide an off-the-record briefing to discuss Korea's environment for foreign direct investment and its aspirations to become a regional financial center. He will also touch upon South Korea's current business/legal and trade climate. Mr. Pinansky, who served as the chairman of the Asia-Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce (APCAC) from 2001 to 2003 and is now APCAC's vice chair of government relations, has written and spoken extensively on Asia-related business and legal matters.

Mr. Pinansky is engaged in the practice of international corporate law and is active in international arbitration, serving as a panelist on the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva. He is a governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, and is a member of the executive committee of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

He is a graduate of Harvard College (1981, magna cum laude) and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (1985) and is a member of the Texas and Washington, DC, bars. In addition to his role with Barun Law in Seoul, he is of counsel to the U.S. law firm of Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios, and has practiced with Kim Shin &Yu in Seoul, Hogan & Hartson in Washington and Vinson & Elkins in Austin.