Our firm provided legal advisory services concerning the execution of a stock option agreement between a venture capital company and its external experts. In principle, the Company Act allows for granting stock options only to its employees and imposes requirements of ‘serving or being employed for more than 2 years for the Company’ to exercise the option. Although the Special Measures Act for the Promotion of Venture Businesses Act allows the external experts of a company as a grantee as an exception to the Companies Act, many external experts fail to meet the ‘serving or being employed’ requirements and face difficulties in exercising stock purchase options. Therefore, we supported our client in granting its stock option to the external experts by presenting appropriate solutions, following consultation with relevant authorities.
