Bae, Kim & Lee has been steadily growing for three decades, but 2018 was a special year for the Korean firm. For the first time in its 33-year history, its gross revenue broke 300 billion Korean won (about $273 million), boosted by headline-grabbing deals and work for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. In a year when all the major Korean firms did well financially, BKL stood out.

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In 2018, 635-lawyer BKL reported $279 million in revenue, a 14.1% increase, placing it at No. 163 in the Global 200, up seven places from the prior year. BKL isn't the only Korean firm in the Second Hundred; 662-lawyer Lee & Ko made its debut in the Global 200 this year at No. 166, with $263 million in gross revenue. And 988-lawyer Kim & Chang, the largest firm in Korea, was in the Global 100 for the fourth straight year, ranking 53rd with $901 million in revenue. Three other major Korean firms that are not in the Global 200—Shin & Kim; Yulchon; and Yoon & Yang—had revenues between $128.5 million and $187.6 million.

As a group, the six firms, known as the Big Six, collectively grew their revenue by 9% in 2018. All but Kim & Chang (3.6%) rose by double digits. Four of the group—Kim & Chang, Lee & Ko, Shin & Kim and Yulchon—also saw significant increases in lawyer numbers (see this year's Asia 50 for more). But BKL and Yoon & Yang were able to achieve revenue growth without greatly expanding head count. Last year, BKL's revenue per lawyer grew 12.3% to $439,000, while Yoon & Yang had RPL of $342,000, up 17.6%, the largest increase among the six.

Sky Yang, a Seoul-based partner and a 26-year lifer at BKL, credits both external and internal factors for the firm's financial success. Since 2017, BKL has represented Korean conglomerate Samsung's leader, Lee Jae-yong, in a corruption scandal that led to the impeachment of Korean President Park Geun-hye. After Moon Jae-in, who campaigned against corruption, succeeded Park in 2017, cartel investigations into the nation's conglomerates increased, which Yang says significantly contributed to BKL's 2018 revenues.

Work continuing to flow from Korea's hot private equity market has also helped, says Yang, who heads BKL's corporate practice. BKL's roster of private equity work in 2018 included advising Hong Kong-based Affinity Equity Partners on a $940 million investment, together with BRV Capital Management, in Korean retail giant Shinsegae, which, according to Reuters, was the largest private equity transaction in Korea since 2015.

The 2018 Winter Olympics also gave the firm a boost—financial and otherwise. BKL served as the official legal counsel to the organizing committee, advising primarily on intellectual property matters, such as protecting brands and marketing agreements. "That definitely added to our reputation," Yang says.

The firm also took matters into its own hands, launching General Data Protection Regulation and blockchain practices in early 2018, as well as opening an office in Pangyo, just south of Seoul, last May. "It's home to a lot of Korean startups and tech companies, like a Korean version of Silicon Valley," Yang says of Pangyo. Shin & Kim is the only other Big Six firm with an office in the city.

BKL's more established offices overseas are also bearing fruit, Yang says. The firm entered Vietnam in 2015 with offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, then launched in Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, the following year. Among the Big Six, only Yulchon can match BKL's contingent of Southeast Asian offices.

"We see increasing outbound acquisitions there," Yang adds.

Moon has been making efforts to deepen Korea's ties with Southeast Asian nations and rely less on its ­traditional trading partners, China and the United States.

Collectively, the Big Six dominate the Korean legal market. According to local media reports, the six firms hold 90% of the market share, in part because foreign firms do not have easy access to local law capability. There are currently 28 foreign firms in Seoul, mostly advising foreign law aspects of outbound M&A and finance deals, as well as international arbitration.

But some global firms have started to leave Korea, and their Seoul-based lawyers are joining local firms. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and McDermott Will & Emery were the first two to close their Seoul offices, in November 2018 and this July, respectively. Simpson Thacher's former Seoul office head, Youngjin Sohn, joined Kim & Chang, and McDermott's former Korea practice group head, Lee In-young, jumped to Lee & Ko. Dentons is also planning to close its foreign law office in Seoul and will instead offer Korean law advice through a combination with a midsize local firm, Lee International.

Despite the firms pulling back from Korea, some global firms are still entering Asia's fourth-largest economy. Since last fall, Shearman & Sterling opened an office focused on project finance, and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer poached three partners from White & Case for its own Seoul office. Arnold & Porter's team hire was significant, as most global firms have a small outpost in Seoul with one or two partners. Among the few firms with larger offices, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton may have the biggest contingent, with 16 lawyers in Seoul, three of whom are partners focusing on international securities, M&A and corporate matters.

"It's a competitive environment with plenty of international firms vying for work," says James Lee, Arnold & ­Porter's Seoul managing partner and one of the three who left White & Case. "In order to be strong [in Korea] you need to be committed to the market."

Arnold & Porter's three-partner Seoul team allows the firm to cover both transactions and disputes, which Washington, D.C.-based chairman Richard Alexander believes will help stabilize the office if a recession hits and deals drop.

"Firms totally focused on transactional work will be most affected [in a recession], but we think we have a diverse practice," says Alexander. Indeed, the Seoul offices of Simpson Thacher and McDermott focused on corporate work before they closed, and Dentons focused on IP matters. In a recession, he notes, disputes tend to rise; Arnold & Porter's Lee specializes in disputes.

BKL's Yang also sees business challenges ahead, emanating from the trade dispute between the U.S. and China, as well as Korea's own issues with Japan. But on the heels of an impressive 2018, BKL doesn't plan to stop growing, even if it might slow its rapid pace.

"The larger we become," Yang says, "the more difficult it is to maintain high growth."