Mr Choon Won Lee (CW Lee)

A Korean maritime lawyer Choon Won Lee, also widely known as CW Lee to both domestic and international shipping society, is now the most well-noted as being a leading maritime lawyer representing the new generation of Korean shipping society.

CW Lee started his profession as a young attorney at Lee & Ko in 1993 and dedicated himself to the excellence in the practice of maritime law as a long-time partner at Choi & Kim. In October 2008, he joined Jipyong Jisung and launched a maritime team, which is now one of the most respected maritime teams in Korea.

His practice involves all aspects of maritime, aviation, insurance and reinsurance offering a wide range of high-quality and efficient legal services in both dry and wet matters including charter party disputes, cargo claims, collisions, fire, oil-pollution, ship building, ship lease and ship finance issues.

He represents most of the major P&I Clubs, ship owners including large-scale Korean ship owners, aviators and insurers worldwide and nationwide in numerous cases.

Indeed, he handled various noteworthy shipping and maritime matters such as the Hyundai Fortune, which is recorded as one of the largest casualty cases in the worldwide shipping society with the estimated total amount of dispute in approximately USD 1.5 billion including the cargo claims of USD 0.5 billion. In this case, CW LEE has successfully persuaded the court to dismiss all claims against the owners of Hyundai Fortune, and obtained a nil assessment decision in the limitation proceeding which is unprecedented in the Korean judicial history.

His recent litigation success includes the Kotoku Fortune case, an international collision matter where the vessel M/T Kotoku Fortune was on sail at sea near Jeju Island while F/B was on fishing, connected by rope with another F/B. When the vessel attempted to pass between two F/Bs, the vessel contacted the rope which turned over one of the F/B and three crewmembers onboard F/B went missing. In this case, CW LEE has brought desirable and successful results for the clients in all civil, criminal, limitation and maritime safety tribunal proceedings by employing unparalleled expertise.

On the other hand, his recent practice focuses more on contract disputes in ship fund, shipbuilding and charterparties and the rehabilitation/bankruptcy of domestic shipping companies, which are increasing after the 2008 crisis. He graduated from the Seoul National University, School of Law in Korea and obtained LL.B. in 1988. He completed the graduate school at the Korea Maritime University in 2001 and LL.M. at the University of Southampton, England in 2003 specializing in the maritime law stream.