Latham & Watkins has received a licence from the Korean Ministry of Justice to open a foreign legal consultant office in Seoul.

The news comes after Legal Week reported in February that Latham had applied to set up an office in Seoul's financial district, Yeouido.

"Seoul is one of Asia's leading financial centres and an engine of economic growth, with strong and growing importance in Asia and globally," said William Voge, Latham's London-based chair and managing partner. "The opening of an office in Seoul will mark a key development in our global expansion."

The official opening of the office is still subject to further regulatory approval.

According to the Korean Ministry of Justice, counsel Helena Kim is registered as Latham's chief representative in Seoul. Kim, who is currently based in Hong Kong, specialises in capital markets and corporate transactions. Earlier this year, Latham vice chair David Gordon told The Asian Lawyer that the Seoul office will also focus on project finance. Sungjin Kang, who is currently the Hong Kong-based finance lawyer and Export–Import Bank of Korea relationship partner, will relocate to Seoul.

The Los Angeles-based firm will be the 28th foreign law firm to be on the ground in Korea, following last year's launches by White & Case, Allen & Overy and Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy. Five of the 28 are UK firms, including Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Stephenson Harwood and Herbert Smith Freehills.

British firms were permitted to enter Korea under the 2011 free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and Korea. But with Britain's June decision to leave the EU, UK firms have found that their right to be in Korea is at risk, as the UK does not itself have a bilateral trade agreement with Korea.

In July, when the Korea-EU FTA reached its fifth year, the UK firms were first allowed to enter the third phase of the legal market liberalisation. To the disappointment of many international firms, the Korean National Assembly, the country's legislature, in February passed a revision to the Foreign Legal Consultant Act, rescinding the promise of fully opening up the market and instead, allowing only restrictive joint ventures between established local practices and foreign firms.

The US firms will be allowed to launch joint ventures in March of next year, when the Korea-US FTA is five years old.

Seoul will be Latham's sixth Asian office, in addition to Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai.