PRACTICES

Corporate Rehabilitation and Bankruptcy

Dispatch of Lawyers and Appointment of Lawyers as Company Officers

Dealing with New and Revised Laws

PRACTICES

Finance

At our law firm, we have a track record of providing all manner of legal services of a financial nature, not only general financial legal affairs pertaining to banking transactions. We are engaged in clinical legal work as well as handling preventative legal matters; for example, (i) from credit inquiries through to claims management and collection, preservation of claims, exercise of security interests, and (ii) from lawsuits through to compulsory execution. In addition to planning of legal affairs related to the development of new financial instruments and trading mechanisms, we also handle strategic legal work and policy-related legal work pertaining to lawmaking. In terms of developing, maintaining, and enhancing the legal systems governing the financial sector, we are involved on the one hand in cooperating to build appropriate legal systems, while on the other hand also making submissions to avoid over-regulation. We also serve as legal advisors to various types of financial industry organizations on their operations and this experience is put to good use the course of our legal practice. We are privileged to have the services of Mr. Yoshiaki Koyama (Note) as our special advisor on financial legal affairs and our lawyers receive his advice on government financial administration not only from a broad perspective, but also on individual matters. Note: Mr. Yoshiaki Koyama's background: Former Councilor (Banking) for Banking Bureau of Ministry of Financeand other positions in the ministry, former member of the Bank of Japan's Policy Board (as a representative of Ministry of Finance), and currently, special advisor to the Regional Financial Laboratory, and author of "Shokai Ginkoho” (Details of the Banking Law - Revised Edition)

Corporate and M&As

At our law firm, we strive to handle the wide-ranging legal needs of our clients in their corporate activities in a manner that is flexible and thorough. Our practice has been not just to put forward a simple legal theory, but to sufficiently analyze the situation our client companies are in and provide forward-looking corporate legal services capable of guiding a course of action for the company in question.

Lawsuits and Settlement of Disputes

At our law firm, we are well versed in civil substantive law and the Code of Civil Procedure and endeavor to settle disputes swiftly and appropriately. With lawsuits we develop sophisticated legal arguments based on "The Requisite Facts Theory” of the Legal Training and Research Institute of Japan and prepare carefully for witness examinations. We are proud of our track record with numerous cases over many years in the area of civil provisional remedies and civil execution, and we have also at times proactively made submissions with respect to court practices. Our advantage of developing appropriate outlooks on the outcome of legal procedures is useful in pre-trial negotiations and ADR (with alternative dispute resolution organizations).

Personal Information & Data Law

We also provide legal services regarding the various types of regulations pertaining to the Personal Information Protection Act and the Act Regarding Use, etc. of Numbers for Identification of Specific Individual in Administrative Procedure (so-called the My Number Act). In particular, the characteristic feature of our law firm is that we are able to provide legal services paying careful attention to the guidelines for the financial sector and the credit sector by levering the knowledge we have accumulated in relation to financial institutions and various financial service providers. We not only provide simple regulatory compliance, but also have a track record in conducting various different types of examinations regarding the utilization of data and new services, such as government systems used for authentication of individuals.

Labor Law

At our law firm, we not only correspond to the constantly changing labor-related laws and regulations and trends in labor administration, we also assist with the various human resources and labor issues that arise within companies.

Crisis Management and Compliance

The revisions to ISO9001 in 2000 meant that international quality control standards, such as PDCA cycles and spiral methodologies, have come to apply not just to the manufacturing industry, but also to services and organizations. At our law firm, we are conscious that this has been the fundamental trigger for the requirement to develop, maintain, and enhance internal controls and risk management systems to also be incorporated into various regulatory laws, such as the Companies Act and the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. Our firm maintains this fundamental awareness whilst also on the other hand providing legal services and practice in risk management in keeping with the detailed regulatory codes.

Corporate Rehabilitation and Bankruptcy

In the area of corporate rehabilitation and bankruptcy law, expertise is now also required not only in conventional applicant's representative and receiver related legal work, but also in M&A related legal work and the associated financial legal work. At our law firm, we provide consultation services not only for debtors, but also for creditors (holders of the right of separate satisfaction) and sponsors. We have proactively expanded our work in this area of practice and have also handled many instances of representative work for the creditor's side in the event of bankruptcy of a relevant party in an asset liquidation or securitization transaction.

Dispatch of Lawyers and Appointment of Lawyers as Company Officers

Legal Services for the Central and Local Governments

At our law firm, we provide a range of services such as lobbying central ministries and agencies, local governments and other public bodies with lawmaking recommendations regarding the areas under their jurisdiction as well as providing support with the drafting of legislation. In addition to traditional legal services such as consultation work regarding legal issues unique to public organizations and statutory interpretation, and drafting various regulations and contracts, our firm recently has been increasingly providing advice on Private-Public Partnerships (PPPs) that employ a variety of mechanisms and schemes, such as projects utilizing public real estate, comprehensive outsourcing to the private sector, and the Designated Manager System, etc.

Real Estate

We provide a broad range of legal services such as building schemes, drafting contracts and corresponding to regulation, etc. in many cases involving general real estate transactions, securitization of real estate and real estate funds, etc.

We ensure we grasp an understanding of new and revised laws, mainly in the area of laws and regulations in the finance sector, in a timely manner and work with a variety of industry organizations and research panels regarding how to deal with them. We also cooperate with the building of legal systems as well as on the other hand submit opinions to avoid over-regulation, and proactively engage in policy-related legal work pertaining to lawmaking.