Lawyer → Finance Industry → Lawyer: Reflections on Practice by Attorney Ko I-shan

On August 27, 2015, the Judicial Reform Foundation organized an "Out-of-the-Box" seminar for newly admitted lawyers, inviting two attorneys, Li Yi-ting and Ko Yi-shan, to share their professional journeys to date, providing trainee lawyers who are about to embark on their legal careers with different visions of the profession. This article summarizes the content shared by Attorney Ko Yi-shan.

Attorney Ko Yi-shan is the founding attorney of IK Partners. Her legal career began during graduate school when she qualified as an attorney. Subsequently, she interned at Kant Law Firm, and upon obtaining her master's degree, worked successively as an associate in the Banking and Capital Markets Department at Baker McKenzie and Lee and Li, Attorneys-at-Law. During her practice, she pursued further studies at Harvard Law School and obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree. She also transitioned to the financial sector, serving as Vice President at the Hong Kong Branch of The Bank of New York Mellon. Ultimately, she returned to Taiwan to establish IK Partners, continuing her practice as an attorney.

Attorney Ko introduced the distinction between litigation and non-litigation (transactional) lawyers. Under the systems of different countries, the roles of lawyers vary. In the United Kingdom, the professional status and duties of lawyers are clearly demarcated between "barristers" (advocates) and "solicitors" (transactional lawyers). The difference between the two lies in the fact that only barristers may appear in court to conduct litigation-related courtroom activities, whereas solicitors may only handle legal affairs outside the remit of barristers. In the United States legal system, by contrast, no formal distinction is drawn regarding the professional status of lawyers; rather, it depends on the nature of their practice within a law firm, such as "litigators" and "corporate lawyers." In Taiwan, as in the United States, there is no marked distinction in the formal status of lawyers. Consequently, this gives rise to misunderstandings among the general public, and even many legal professionals hold the view that only those who "frequent the courts" are truly lawyers, while non-litigation lawyers are not considered real lawyers.

The primary practice areas of non-litigation lawyers encompass real estate, securitization issuances, corporate mergers and acquisitions, capital market financing (public offerings and listings of shares, corporate bonds, domestic and overseas depositary receipts, and funds), and intellectual property cases. One may gain exposure to such matters either in private practice law firms or by working in-house as corporate legal counsel.

Accordingly, Attorney Ko also introduced the nature of work as in-house corporate counsel. The work of in-house counsel is divided into two areas: "Legal" and "Compliance." The former refers to handling internal and external contracts and legal issues, liaising with government authorities and responding to official inquiries, and ensuring that other internal corporate units comply with laws and regulations. The latter refers to verifying that company conduct conforms to industry standards, organizing training to enhance employee awareness of laws and regulations, and related matters.

The entry threshold for becoming a non-litigation lawyer requires not only the capacity to constantly keep abreast of industry trends and emerging technological knowledge, but also strong proficiency in English or other foreign languages. Having worked at the Hong Kong Branch of The Bank of New York Mellon, she particularly noted that when working in multinational corporations, one's English must be exceptionally strong. Because English is used exclusively at work, proficiency goes beyond simply being competent in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and mere skill in English translation is not sufficient. Within a corporation, in addition to proper diction and accurate formatting in English correspondence, one must also be able to draft English contracts with precise formatting; this represents the basic threshold.

Furthermore, regarding the question raised by trainees on how to enhance English skills, she noted that one can listen to and watch CNN or BBC news, reading one to three reports daily, or read The New York Times, whose reporting is consistently exemplary. There is no need to deliberately pick a specific section; one simply needs to choose topics of personal interest. Alternatively, watching American television series can help build English competence through listening and viewing. The most critical factor, however, is consistency—accustoming oneself to an English learning environment, which yields rapid results.

Attorney Ko also reminded those wishing to enter the non-litigation legal field that, alongside foreign language proficiency, one must constantly follow and update oneself on current industry information and interact with individuals across different sectors, which enables cross-disciplinary learning.

Attorney Ko concluded by sharing that regardless of whether one practices as a non-litigation lawyer or a litigator, one can engage in judicial reform work, because being a lawyer entails the mission of safeguarding human rights and supporting judicial reform to advance the rule of law. There are numerous avenues to participate in judicial reform. In addition to participating in the Legal Ethics Reading Group at the Judicial Reform Foundation, she continues to engage in exchanges and share experiences with newly admitted lawyers. Given that the Judicial Reform Foundation serves as an organization that monitors and evaluates judicial institutions and advocates for judicial human rights, financial independence is of paramount importance, and "fundraising" is a task in which she has been deeply involved at the Foundation.