Leading Japanese Law Firm To Permit Foreign Lawyers as Equity Partners

partnership benefits

Anderson Mori & Tomotsune is pleased to announce the launch of a “foreign law joint enterprise”, with the appointment as partners of designated registered foreign lawyers qualified in the United States, the United Kingdom and Mainland China, which will enable us to structurally strengthen our firm’s cross-border capabilities.

The fast pace of technological developments in information technology has been a key catalyst of globalization characterized by increasingly borderless economic activity. To best position ourselves in this changing environment, we decided to launch a “foreign law joint enterprise” as defined in the “Act on Special Measures concerning the Handling of Legal Services by Foreign Lawyers” as of January 2021. This launch will enable Japanese lawyers and registered foreign lawyers to establish a true and equal partnership allowing our firm to maximize our legal abilities and human resources in an effort to continue serving our clients to the best of our abilities, in particular in cross-border matters.

Anderson Mori & Tomotsune’s strength in international matters is a defining feature of our firm which gives us distinctive abilities in the Japanese legal market. Since the firm’s establishment in 1952, we have built a solid track record in cross-border transactions with overseas countries for both Japanese and non-Japanese clients and have consistently been a leader in this field. With the launch of the “foreign law joint enterprise”, our registered foreign lawyer partners who are fluent in Japanese, through close teamwork with our Japanese lawyers, will be able to even better support our clients in a variety of cross-border cases such as corporate transactions involving US laws, financial transactions involving UK laws, international litigation and competition law matters, international arbitration, and investments in China, demonstrating our firm’s best-in-market legal capabilities in the cross-border field.

The launch of the “foreign law joint enterprise” demonstrates our strong commitment to eliminate any remaining barriers between Japanese lawyers and the designated registered foreign lawyers and to further establish ourselves as a truly global, diverse, and inclusive organization. Looking ahead, we are committed to actively recruit talented foreign qualified lawyers who are passionate about building bridges between Japan and the rest of the world to strengthen and enhance our cross-border practice and closely meet our clients’ needs that are increasingly becoming more complex.

The official firm name in Japanese will change to “Anderson Mori & Tomotsune Gaikokuho-Kyodo-Jigyo” accompanying the launch of the foreign law joint enterprise but our English name will remain Anderson Mori & Tomotsune.

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