They’ve Got Next: Banking and Finance Fresh Face Ryan Kim

Ryan Kim’s experience as a young immigrant instilled an international perspective early in his life.

The Seoul native, whose family immigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia when he was 10, dreamed of working at the United Nations and later studied international relations at Johns Hopkins University. But like many liberal arts majors unsure about their next career steps, he chose to go to law school.

A decision born out of his post-graduation uncertainties has worked out pretty well for Kim, now a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

Appreciation for cross-cultural communication and nuanced international perspective continues to pay off for Kim, whose clients include large companies engaged in complex equity and financing transactions that cross borders.

“Growing up in two cultures, I think you just kind of naturally pick up the different nuances of culture obviously – how you communicate,” said the Columbia Law School graduate. “I think you just sort of tend to become a little bit more interested in what makes up a person, how you identify yourself.”

Kim said he took a major stride as a corporate lawyer while he was still an associate assigned to work on high-profile energy company bankruptcy cases, including SunEdison, Foresight Energy and PG&E between 2016 and 2020

Kim served as the lead finance attorney representing a consortium of hedge funds in the SunEdison bankruptcy, which lasted from 2016 to 2017.

The distressed company cases “really kind of shaped the way I think about restructuring transactions and generally financing transactions overall,” he said. “People don’t really pay as much attention to what’s in the contract unless there’s an issue.”

Since joining Akin Gump in 2014, Kim has played an integral part—often acting as lead finance attorney—on many restructuring deals. Jaisohn Im, a partner at the firm who’s worked with Kim, notes his “smart, even keeled” approach

In the last two years, Kim helped build the firm’s direct lending practice involving special situations or opportunistic financing, serving clients like financing firms Kennedy Lewis Investment Management and Vista Credit Partners.

Kim was promoted as partner in January this year. “We all view him as a rising star here,” Im said.

His practice also includes private equity-related corporate financing, liability management transactions, and working with debtors and creditors in corporate restructuring.

One of the most arduous deals Kim helped negotiate for Vista Credit involved a $175 million recapitalization for Meltwater, a provider of media monitoring platforms to public relations firms.

The March 2019 deal spanned multiple continents, including Europe, Asia and Australia. Working long hours managing counsels across the globe to get to closing within just a month was “physically difficult,” Kim said.

“Most of our deals have some international flavor to them, so we were comfortable with working with foreign counsels and learning about local law on the fly, but the scope and timing of the Meltwater transaction made it quite challenging and memorable,” he said.

Despite their complexities, the direct lending transactions like those for Vista, or other clients including Kennedy Lewis Investment Management and Brightwood Capital Advisors, have grown into a new passion for Kim and his practice. Those transactions take more than just knowing the ins and outs of finance law or offering creative solutions to bridge conflicting interests, he said. “It’s making sure people like the deal that they’re entering into.”

A love of outdoor and team sports—competitive volleyball, in particular—also shapes Kim’s outlook on his legal practice and teamwork, he said.

“Knowing when to lead and knowing when not to lead; being a good teammate and knowing your role on a team—that’s all very appropriate in a law firm setting,” he said.

Recruiting law students of color and mentoring young associates are priorities for Kim, who is a member of Akin’s Asian Firmwide Resource Group.

He helps his mentees not only learn the ropes of finance law, but also how to “navigate a big law firm and be able to be yourself and be confident,” Kim said.

The role is about paying forward the mentorship benefits Kim received at the firm as a young attorney, he said. “I really felt like I was comfortable being who I am and doing the work and being valued for the work,” he said.