Biography

Ayong is a Korean qualified lawyer with five years of experience in international investment and commercial arbitration. She has specific experience in high-profile investment treaty arbitrations against the Republic of Korea, as well as disputes involving corporate law, licensing agreements, and tax.

Before joining the MIDS, she worked as an associate at a top-tier law firm in Korea (2017-2020), where she acted in investment and commercial disputes under the UNCITRAL, ICC, and KCAB Rules. Prior to that, she worked with the Korean Ministry of Justice (2015-2017) as legal adviser on investment treaty arbitration cases against the Republic of Korea and on negotiations of Korea’s BIT/FTAs. She has significant experience advising government clients in investor-State disputes, as well as representing corporate clients in international commercial arbitrations and litigations involving enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards.

Ayong is a co-editor of ‘International Investment Arbitration and Public Policy II’ (Korean edition, June 2020) with Professor Hi-Taek Shin and Ms. Liz Kyo-Hwa Chung. She was a contributor of an Investment Treaty Overview for the Republic of Korea for the Oxford University Press.

As a student in Seoul National University in Korea, Ayong won accolades for her university in various moot court competitions such as the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition (2005-2006) and the FDI Moot Court Competition (2014). She has experience coaching Jessup, WTO/FTA, FDI Moot Court teams (2007-2014) and served as arbitrator in the FDI Moot Court (2016-present).

She enjoys freediving and yoga in her free time.