Dispute Resolution Clauses in Franchise, Joint Venture, Partnership Agreements in Korea

It is essential for all joint venture, franchise, shareholder, and similar agreements in Korea to include dispute resolution clauses. These clauses are fundamental to establish, amongst other things, the:

1. prevailing language of the agreement;
2. forum to resolve the dispute;
3. process of resolving the dispute;
4. damages and costs for breaching the agreement;
5. enforceability of a judgment against a party to the agreement; and
6. flexibility of mediation and arbitration rules.

To often, I see shareholder, joint venture, franchise, and partnership disputes going badly because of poorly drafted agreements. Some of these agreements are drafted by lawyers with, seemingly, little experience in litigation and arbitration in Korea and, thus, little sense of the manner in which these business relationships go awry.

One of these critical flaws in these Korean agreements is the lack of consideration of dispute resolution, and the simple plugging into agreements standard dispute resolution clauses.

Please see our other posts on joint venture agreements:

• Korean Joint Ventures: Bare Essential of a JV in Korea
• Listen to My Mother: JVs in Asia
• Doing Business in Asia: Due Diligence, Agreements, Attorneys and Street Smarts
• Building Systems Before JVs in Korea to Build trust Between the Parties
• Basic Agreements for Doing Business in Korea

Sean’s profile may be found at Sean C. Hayes. To schedule a call with Sean Hayes, please click: Schedule a Call with Sean Hayes.

Sean Hayes is the first non-Korean attorney to have worked for the Korean court system (Constitutional Court of Korea) and one of the first non-Koreans to be a regular member of a Korean law faculty. He assists clients in their contentious, non-contentious, and business development needs. Sean is rated a Top 100 attorney, and his firm was rated a top dispute resolution law firm for Korea.