Seoul, South Korea.

Leading Korean firm Yoon & Yang has hired a longtime IBM in-house lawyer as a partner in Seoul.

U.S.-qualified Edward Dhong focuses on corporate investigations, regulatory compliance and antitrust matters, and has advised on issues related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In 2016, he served as an adviser to the South Korean government’s Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission on the adoption of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, which made it illegal for public officials to receive expensive gifts.

Dhong joins Yoon & Yang after almost 15 years with IBM. He was most recently Asia-Pacific head of legal investigations since last October, supervising lawyers and investigators conducting investigations on potential fraud, corruption, conflict of interest and other corporate misconduct. During his time at IBM, he also implemented the tech giant’s corporate compliance programmes in Korea.

Before moving in-house, Dhong was a corporate associate at the now-defunct Coudert Brothers in Palo Alto for a year until 2004, just before the firm declared bankruptcy in 2005. Before that, he practised at Baker McKenzie’s offices in San Francisco and Silicon Valley for more than four years.

Earlier this year, Yoon & Yang hired Sungwook Cho, a former chief prosecutor, as a managing partner specializing in white-collar criminal defense—an area the firm said it will continue to strengthen.

Yoon & Yang reported a head count of 367 lawyers in 2017, making it the sixth-largest Korean firm after Kim & Chang; Bae, Kim & Lee; Lee & Ko; Shin & Kim and Yulchon.