Sung Hui Kim
Associate Professor of Law
B.A., M.A., summa cum laude, 1988, Emory University; J.D., cum laude, 1992, Harvard University; Member, California State and District of Columbia Bars
Email:
Phone: (213) 738-6821
Room: BW347
An experienced corporate lawyer with an international background, Sung Hui Kim joined Southwestern after several years of providing counsel to a fast-rising, global corporate phenomenon and brings an insider's knowledge of the modern business world to her courses on Contracts, Business Associations and Legal Profession.
Professor Kim earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from Emory University, and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School. A fluent speaker of German, she spent the following year in Berlin on a fellowship, observing and participating in the German Foreign Office and Berlin Cabinet of Ministers.
Professor Kim returned to the U.S. and joined the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski, where she spent two years as an associate in the international department before joining the corporate department of Hale & Dorr. After moving to Los Angeles, she worked as an associate in the corporate departments of several firms, including O'Melveny & Myers and Riordan & McKenzie.
In 1995, Professor Kim began providing legal advice to the North American subsidiary of Austrian-based Red Bull, whose energy drink was then being introduced in the U.S. Three years later, she joined the company as general counsel. As Red Bull's popularity surged, she supervised the company's legal matters, including marketing and advertising, contracts, licensing, antitrust and intellectual property. Recalling many of the "cutting edge" legal issues that arose, Professor Kim said working in-house provided unique thrills and challenges. "You have an opportunity to shape the corporate legal philosophy," she said. "You're in a much more strategic position."
Professor Kim added that her experiences in private practice inspired her to pursue scholarship work on the subject of legal ethics. "I tell my students that there are two questions that every lawyer should ask when counseling a client about a proposed course of action. The first is: 'Is it legal?' The second is: 'Is it right?'"
Publications
Articles
"Gatekeepers Inside Out," 411 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF LEGAL ETHICS 21 (2008)
"The Banality of Fraud: Resituating the Inside Counsel as Gatekeeper," 74 FORDHAM LAW REVIEW 983 (2005)
"'We the (Supermajority of the) People': The Development of a Rationale for Written Higher Law in North American Constitutions," 137 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 364 (1993)
