David Y.K. Kim
Principal Attorney and Strategic Advisor, Crossbridge Law Group
Harvard Law School, J.D.
Harvard Business School, cross-registered coursework
UC Berkeley, B.A.
A&O Shearman, Associate
J.P. Morgan, Investment Banker (Vice President)
Merrill Lynch (now part of Bank of America), Senior In-House Counsel
Law, Finance, and Business in a Single Advisor
David Y.K. Kim’s background spans more than two decades across law, investment banking, in-house leadership, business consulting, and cross-border business, a combination that shapes how he advises on every engagement.
Legal questions rarely arrive in isolation, and business decisions rarely come without legal consequences: a sale to negotiate, a financing to plan, a partner to choose, a market to enter. David advises in two roles. As a lawyer, he handles transactions and ongoing legal matters. As a strategic advisor, through the firm’s Strategic Advisory practice, he advises on financing and investment strategy, partnering and licensing, and other major business decisions. In both roles, the aim is the same: the legal answer and the business answer should point in the same direction.
David practiced as an associate at A&O Shearman, a major global law firm, where he developed the transactional depth and judgment on deal terms that continue to anchor his work. He also served as a Vice President and investment banker at J.P. Morgan, with significant work in life sciences, healthcare, and technology companies, and as Senior In-House Counsel at Merrill Lynch. Those roles gave him direct insight into how sophisticated institutions evaluate risk, structure transactions, negotiate commercial terms, and make decisions under real-world constraints.
As a business consultant, he advised companies in various industries on financing and investment strategy. For biotech companies, he arranged introductions to several top-20 global pharmaceutical companies and moved those discussions to diligence-stage meetings. He has also worked with medtech companies.
That combination (global law firm attorney, investment banker, Fortune 100 in-house counsel, and business consultant) is unusual. It allows him to address the legal issues and the commercial realities around them in the same conversation: the logic of a deal, the leverage in a negotiation, how a counterparty's deal team is likely to read the terms, and the practical path to execution. His career has taken him across California, New York, London, Tokyo, and Seoul.
His work includes advising companies, founders, investors, and business owners on transactions, financing and investment strategy, partnering and licensing, cross-border matters, and succession-related matters.
A Career Across Institutions
Sectors
Technology: transactional and commercial matters for technology companies and growth-stage businesses.
Healthcare & Life Sciences: biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device, and healthcare companies, including licensing, partnering, and investment matters, as legal counsel or strategic advisor.
Finance & Investment: investment firms, venture capital and private equity participants, financial institutions, and investors.
Other Industries: manufacturing, real estate, consumer, entertainment, and established service businesses.
What Clients Value
Clients typically engage Crossbridge Law Group when they want:
Senior-level judgment rather than layered staffing
Commercially informed counsel rather than abstract legal analysis
Cross-border experience, including U.S.–Asia matters
An integrated view across legal, financial, and strategic considerations
Large-firm experience delivered through a leaner, senior-led model
Begin with a conversation.
To discuss a legal or business matter, please get in touch.