Sung Eun (Summer) Kim

Professor of Law
Sung Eun (Summer) Kim

Expertise:

Corporate law, corporate finance, financial regulation, contracts

Background:

Summer Kim is Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law. Professor Kim’s primary research and teaching interests are in corporate law, corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, financial regulation and contracts. Her scholarship examines how legal and market structures create and deepen inequities in our society, and her work aims to close these gaps.

Her recent paper, Corporate Long Arms, explains how states like California and New York can serve as a laboratory for innovation and experimentation in corporate law, relying on a little known but powerful “long arm” provision contained in the states’ corporate codes. This paper was selected for reprinting in the Corporate Practice Commentator (CPC), a periodical edited by Professor Bob Thompson of Georgetown Law which brings reliable information to readers on recent developments in corporate law. Professor Kim’s commentary and writings on the recent California bills which mandate greater diversity on the boards of California-headquartered corporations explains how these bills are an example of the state’s valid exercise of its corporate long arm power.

Professor Kim is a co-author (with Professor Cynthia Williams of Indiana University Maurer School of Law and Professor D. Gordon Smith, Dean and Woodruff J. Deem Professor of Law of BYU Law School) of the popular teaching casebook, Business Organizations: Cases, Problems & Case Studies (5th edition, Wolters Kluwer, 2022).

Professor Kim is also the inaugural Faculty Director of the Korea Law Center and has served in this role since 2016. The mission of the Korea Law Center is to promote practical solutions to problems arising at the intersection of U.S. and Korean laws. The Korea Law Center has facilitated important comparative discussions across diverse topics ranging from constitutional law to business law. In recognition of her service to the Korean community, Professor Kim received the Trailblazer Award from the Orange County Korean American Bar Association (OC KABA) in 2016.

Prior to law teaching, Professor Kim practiced law at Kirkland & Ellis and Shearman & Sterling, where she specialized in the areas of debt finance and capital markets. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude, from Seoul National University. She is a member of the New York and California bars. 

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Prof. Kim's Scholarly Papers on SSRN

  • Dec. 15, 2021
    Panelist (Balancing Innovation with the Consumer Interest), International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) 2021 Conference
  • Sept. 3, 2021
    Panelist (Panel on AI, Public Policy, and Corporate Social Responsibility), UC Santa Barbara 2021 Responsible Machine Learning Summit
  • Oct. 1, 2021
    Panelist, Mandating Corporate Diversity, The 28th Annual Conference International Association of Korean Lawyers (IAKL)
  • July 22, 2021
    Presenter, “Lessons from Corporate Personhood for the Intelligence Age” KAIST Korea Policy Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (KPC4IR) Seminar
  • July 8, 2021
    Presenter, Mandating Corporate Diversity, 2021 K-Law Forum, Online
  • Jan. 2, 2020
    Presenter, “Digital Transformation and Corporate Law”, Rising Tensions Among Corporate Stakeholders, 2020 AALS Annual Meeting in Washington D.C.
  • Dec. 12, 2019
    Speaker, Lessons from Corporate Personhood for the Intelligence Age, San Diego Blockchain Forum, UCSD Rady School of Management, La Jolla, CA
  • Oct. 2019
    Presenter, "Lessons from Corporate Personhood for the Intelligence Age," Cryptoeconomic Systems Summit, MIT, Cambridge, MA
  • Aug. 2019
    Conference organizer and presenter, “Consumer Primacy Alternative,” 2nd Trans-Pacific Business Law Dialogue, Irvine, CA
  • June 2019
    Session chair and presenter, “Consumer Primacy Alternative,” IFABS 2019 Corporate Finance Conference, Angers, France
  • June 2019
    Invited Speaker, “Consumers and Corporate Governance,” Seoul National University Center for Distributive Justice, SeminarSeoul, Korea
  • May 2019
    Presenter, “Consumer Primacy Alternative,” Corporate Social Responsibility Across the AtlanticBoston, MA
  • March 2019
    Presenter, “Consumers as Owners,” 3rd Tulane Corporate and Securities Law Conference, New Orleans, LA
  • March 2019
    Presenter, “Consumers as Owners,” BYU Winter Deals Conference, Park City, UT
  • Feb. 2019
    Presenter, “Consumers as Owners,” Corporate Law Teachers Association Conference, Auckland, New Zealand
  • Feb. 2019
    Presenter, “Consumers as Owners,” Financial Law Amity Symposium, Centre For Banking & Finance Law, National University of Singapore, Singapore
  • Nov. 2018
    Presenter, “De-democratization of Firms,” Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity Conference, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • Oct. 2018
    Presenter, “De-Democratization of Firms,” UC Davis School of Law Faculty Workshop
  • Oct. 2018
    Presenter, “De-Democratization of Firms,” Sixth Annual Workshop for Corporate & Securities Litigation, University of Richmond School of Law
  • July 16, 2018
    Presenter, “Corporate Long Arms,” Pioneering a Trans-Pacific Vision in Corporate Law and Capital Market Law, Seoul National University
  • May 2018
    Presenter, Corporate Long Arms, 28th Annual Meeting of the American Law and Economics Association, May 11-12, 2018 at Boston University School of Law
  • March 2018 
    Presenter, De-Democratization of Firms, Tulane Corporate and Securities Law Conference, Tulane University Law School, New Orleans, LA
  • March 2018 
    Presenter, De-Democratization of Firms, 2018 BYU Winter Deals Conference, BYU School of LawPark City, UT
  • Feb. 2018
    Presenter, De-Democratization of Firms, Workshop on Industrial Organization and Corporate Welfare, UC Irvine Economics DepartmentIrvine, CA
  • Jan. 4, 2018
    Presenter, “Fostering Private Equity Using a Law-First Approach”, Emerging Voices in Securities Regulation, 2018 AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA
  • Jan. 5, 2018
    Presenter, “Corporate Governance Structures of Public-Private Equity”, Offering, Selling, and Trading Securities: New Perspectives, 2018 AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA