KCCI holds legal capacity seminar for small and mid-sized firms

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a seminar Thursday to strengthen the legal capabilities of small and mid-sized businesses, co-organizing the event with law firm Kim & Chang at the KCCI building.

The seminar, which kicked off in Seoul, will travel to Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Gwangju, Daejeon and other major cities through next January. Detailed schedules for each regional stop will be posted on the websites of local chambers of commerce.

The event is a follow-up to a survey on the legal and regulatory capabilities and challenges of small and mid-sized companies that KCCI released in July. In that survey, companies identified their top priorities for strengthening legal capacity as the development of tailored legal guidelines for smaller firms (51.0 percent), expanded access to low-cost legal services (44.3 percent) and more education and seminars on legal and regulatory matters (29.0 percent).

In response, the seminar focused on recent amendments and key compliance points across four areas of high interest to businesses: the Fair Trade Act, the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, tax law and commercial law.

Jeon Ki-hong, a Kim & Chang attorney who presented on the Fair Trade Act, said the government's recent establishment of a dedicated investigation task force — along with higher penalty surcharges and other regulatory changes — has made careful legal review at the corporate level increasingly important.

Attorney Kang Geom-yun, who covered the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, said that as the law approaches its fifth year in force, Kim & Chang's tallies show 127 rulings had been handed down through August this year — 11 resulting in prison terms, 99 in suspended sentences, six in fines and 11 in acquittals. He said continuously fulfilling safety and health obligations on the ground is essential to preventing industrial accidents.

Attorney Seo Ji-won and tax accountant Lee Sang-woo presented on the key provisions of the 2026 tax reform bill and their implications for businesses. Seo said that because facilities already receiving the integrated investment tax credit are barred from claiming duplicate benefits, companies should compare the effects of each available regime against their own investment and production conditions and choose the most suitable credit.

Attorneys Kim Ji-pyeong and Lee Woo-ju outlined how companies should respond to a series of commercial law amendments that have taken effect since July last year, including the expansion of directors' duty of loyalty. They highlighted the need to prepare board reports that fully reflect potential conflicts of interest and the alternatives the board considered, and to strengthen compliance frameworks against the risk of shareholder litigation holding directors liable for damage to shareholder value caused by regulatory violations such as penalty surcharges.