From cross-border deals to cultural understanding, Tae-Seung Lee builds bridges for global business success.
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Show Notes:
In this Mission Matters episode, Adam Torres interviews Tae-Seung Lee, Corporate Attorney at Maynard Nexsen PC, during the Korea Conference in Marina del Rey. Tae discusses his work guiding Korean companies through mergers, acquisitions, and U.S. market expansion. He also shares cultural insights into Korean business communication and his mission to help innovators connect, collaborate, and grow across borders.
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Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just set on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I’m in. In Marina del Rey, California, and I’m covering the Korea conference.
I’ve been on here now three or four years. I do not miss this conference. Jenny and, and Jim and their whole board, they put on an amazing, amazing show. I just got done watching a bunch of pitch competitions and let me tell you lots of things happening in Korea and with Korean companies. And my next guest is Tay Tay.
Welcome to the show. Nice. Nice to meet you. Thanks for having me. Alright, so what, what brings you out? I know, I know we talked a little bit in before the, before the show. This is your first year out to the conference. What brings you out here today? So I knew a guy, that new guy that also knew a guy, uhoh, where’s this going?
Nah, I’m in. He, he’s, he is always talked about the importance of being connected to the right folks. Mm. He’s talked to me about this conference for years now. Yeah. I believe this is what, the third or fourth? Yeah. So I’ve been planning to attend this about same time last year. So it’s a, a must go event for me for the year.
And thankfully my schedules were allowing me to come over here. Yeah. And looking forward to meeting some more folks today. So we just got done watching some pitch competitions. You you don’t have to get any specific company, but just in general, any themes or anything that you noticed throughout the, the different pitches and like what was interesting to you?
Well, a lot of people would talk about the ai, the advent of the new technology and innovation, but what I looked at was. The importance of, of people that’s doing it. The creativity, the, the thoughts and ideas that they have. Yeah. And they’re looking for connection with other people and it’s regardless of what kind of technologies you have.
Mm-hmm. You need to have the right folks helping you out, sort of an infrastructure perspective. So I thought that was a theme, is making sure that they’re on the right, folks, getting the right investment help and whatever assistance that they might need to succeed. Mm. One thing that I’ll say, I, I noticed when I was listening to it is.
Some of the, like this, the transparency, I just noticed that like a couple of very, very obviously in intelligent, amazing people just to get on the stage at the Korea conference and the hardworking, all of that. But a couple of ’em made jokes like, as long as we’re still in business and there’s a lot of, I, I gotta ask you like.
That transparency, like culturally or otherwise? Like, I, it was refreshing to me. Like I, I’ve been to a lot of conferences and normally I’m not hearing like that much like gusto to me that that’s a funny thing. It’s a cultural thing. So Koreans we, we value confidence. But we do not appreciate cockiness.
Yeah. So there’s a level of appreciation for vulnerability. Mm-hmm. So when you come out and say, look, I need your help. Without you, I’m nothing. Yeah. And if you can support us this time, we’ll go a long way. That’ll be a much better way than go out Pompously say, this is our innovation. I want your help.
Yeah, I’m helping you as well. So that’s, the Korean people see it a little different, so they, they’re more open to, to emotions. And if we connect emotionally and they get that compassion. A lot of times business and investment just follows, man, it was refreshing to me. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve seen a lot of different ones and I heard, I saw, I heard it more the ones, at first I was like, huh, it kind of peaked my ears a little bit and I’m like, huh.
And then I heard another person and I was like, wow, it’s refreshing. ’cause you, I felt honesty in it, like genuine honesty and genuine connection. But in the same sense, I’m looking at the numbers that were on there and I’m like, wait a minute. I’ve seen a lot more confident people that don’t have numbers like that.
These guys are rock stars. That, that’s the thing I, I don’t know if you went to junior high and, and school with Korean kids in there. A lot of them are brilliant. Yeah. But not a lot of people speak up. Not a lot of people are showing off their accomplishments. And that’s a cultural thing. And just to give you a side story, so when I go out and pitch or talk to potential clients, what I say is, Hey, look.
I’m the only Korean lawyer at the law firm of 600 attorneys. Yeah, that’s not even true. We got, we got some Korean representation, but I just say that and I say, if you can help me succeed here, I’ll be able to bring a lot for the Korean attorneys who move it forward. Help me, help me grow and I’ll come back to you.
Ah, and that a lot of times paid some dividends. And I think I’m gonna continue to do that. Dang, TI think you, I think you just taught me how I enter the Korean market. You just taught me the secret. I haven’t hit it yet. I’m gonna be like, I’m gonna go to the companies and I’m say, look, if you help me grow in the, but it is the truth though.
It is the truth. I think it’s a really, the market a little too handsome and, and well spoken. To be going that route. I’m going for it though. I’ll learn, I’ll learn Tay, because we’ll, we, we’ll identify fake right off the bat. Yeah. So you can’t be fake. You want to be genuine, but there’s some, some level of compassion that, that’s good.
Here. As speaking of your work and what you’re doing, tell us a little bit more about what you’re doing as an attorney and and any specialties in your practice or otherwise. So I am an attorney. I am a corporate attorney. Mm-hmm. So I specialize in m and a, which is mergers and acquisitions, just buying and selling companies.
And we also help in the fund formation. So anything that we call mutual funds or funding or creating a fund we can be a part of. But I’m intern my 10th year as an attorney. Wow. And at this point it’s more you help whichever need that the client might have. So I go out there, I pitch to the clients, bring in clients, and they have different needs.
A lot of times for me it’s Korean companies bringing their businesses over to the us. And they’re not only looking to buy or sell. Yeah, they’re sometimes needing immigration work. IP work gets into construction, or they need to negotiate with the state government for economic development site selection.
Again, I think I mentioned immigration. Yeah. Yeah. But different parts of law that they might need. So my role has evolved more into a, an integrator mm-hmm. A connector. So I’ll know people within the firm. Like I said, our firm is of 600 attorneys. Mm-hmm. 30 offices nationwide. So regardless of jurisdiction, geography.
There will be someone that can help. Yeah. So my job is to know what capabilities we have and just connect them to the right folks and just resolve the issue. Any trends you’re following right now and specifically in maybe doing business between Korea and the US or otherwise? Just like what, what, what are you following?
Like what, what’s on your docket? So as attorneys, you might think that we’re more of a, a conservative folks, but that’s not true for us to stay on top of our games. Yeah. We always have to. Be ahead of the trends. So for example, with the advent of AI and the new technologies, what we’re going for is understanding how the landscapes of legal services could change.
Mm-hmm. So I think in five or 10 years, the need for a production side of legal work, for example, if there’s a m and a transactions mm-hmm. Our job used to be to produce documents, make sure that the transactions go smoothly. Yeah. But. My expectation is that within 5, 6, 7 years, a lot could be replaced by AI for sure, in a much more cost efficient way.
So you gotta think, how can we help the clients without being interrupted by that innovation? I think people to people deals. Gonna remain important. Yeah. For example, we have a tremendous government affairs practice. Mm. And some of my most important clients are looking for someone on foot nearby the government.
Mm. Let’s say dc you’re in DC too, but am I correct, right? Yeah. You’re in dc I’m recently relocated to the DC office. Mm-hmm. And the the reason being is. They want someone on foot to be able to let ’em know what’s going on, talk to them about restrictions, export control. Mm. Whichever way that the, that the government is going and for us to understand what they need and be able to deploy our resources, including the lobbyists, government affairs folks.
Mm-hmm. Government solutions team. So just understanding what capabilities we have. Just knowing your firm well enough to connect the right folks that’s being ahead of the trend. Another thing is with the whole Korea tariff talks with the US government. Yeah, yeah. There’s gonna be a lot of potential.
Inve investments, however, there are a lot of roadblocks ahead mm-hmm. Ahead. And for us to be able to navigate that, we need someone on foot, on ground knowing what the US government is thinking. At the same time knowing what the Korean government and sentiments are. Yeah. So having to, to be able to balance those would come very important.
Amazing tey. I know you gotta get back to the conference. Appreciate you taking some time for us. Last thing I want you to do, look into the camera if somebody’s watching or listening to this, and if they wanna connect, follow you on social, visit the website, anything else, connect on LinkedIn, whatever you’d like feel free to to, to let him know how Well I thought Adam and I were gonna have more fun.
He’s already kicking me up, so I guess I wasn’t passing the, the being funny part of the criteria here. I apologize for that. It’s my first time. Next time if you call me up, I’ll be better. And if any of you, especially the, the Korean companies wanting to bring businesses over to the US or anyone in the US that are needing some legal services.
Lemme give you my elevator speech. Mm-hmm. What I try to tell you is we are law firm of 600 attorneys. We’re a big law firm. However, we are based out of Alabama. So our overhead allows for us to be much more economical compared to comparable law firms in New York or Los Angeles. Mm-hmm. So, if you are scared or fed up or frustrated with the high cost of hiring a law firm, think of us.
Think of me. You can email me at tl [email protected]. Fantastic for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put some information in the show notes so you can connect with Tay. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show each and every day, bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and hey man, appreciate you coming on. Thanks for having me, man.
