Global law firm K&L Gates LLP has expanded its Tokyo office with the addition of 10 lawyers from Clifford Chance LLP, strengthening K&L Gates’ Asia presence to more than 100 legal professionals across six offices. Partners Keiji Isaji, Atsushi Yamashita, and Naoki Watanabe are joined in the move to K&L Gates by counsels Noriko Annen, Tsuguhito Omagari, Noriaki Tanimoto, and Junko Okawa, as well as three associates.
“With the addition of these distinguished practitioners, we take a major step toward a full offering of services in our Tokyo office,” said K&L Gates Chairman and Global Managing Partner Peter J. Kalis.
“With the addition of the breadth, depth, and robust nature of experience of these lawyers in Japanese law and cross-border matters, K&L Gates is providing as extensive a range of legal services to clients – from commercial corporate to regulatory to disputes matters – as any law firm in Tokyo,” commented David Tang, K&L Gates’ Managing Partner, Asia. “We are delighted to join together to serve better our clients in the region.”
Isaji concentrates his practice on prominent civil, commercial, and criminal disputes such as finance, media, aviation, political law, and white-collar matters. He also advises on securities, banking, and regulatory matters relating to the Japanese Banking Law and similar regulations, including resolution of disputes with the governmental authority concerning such regulatory matters and counseling on a variety of legal issues involving foreign funds.
Also an experienced disputes lawyer, Yamashita focuses on high-profile civil, commercial, and white-collar matters and advising Japanese companies on foreign antitrust and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act issues. He also counsels on cross-border and domestic corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, exchanges and joint ventures, and takeover bids.
A corporate and transactional lawyer, Watanabe represents a number of Japan-based and international blue chip clients on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, takeover bids, joint ventures, distributorships, and license agreements, as well as employment, compliance, and data protection matters. He also counsels companies in the healthcare sector and actively serves on the internal review boards of several Japanese pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.
“K&L Gates has been rapidly expanding despite the financially difficult period, and we are delighted to join the firm and contribute our experience and capabilities as Japanese law advisers in both the domestic and international contexts,” stated Isaji.
K&L Gates established its Tokyo office – the firm’s sixth in Asia – in January 2010, also adding Sergey Milanov as a corporate partner in the office last month. K&L Gates first entered the Asia market in 1996 with its Hong Kong office, which was followed by offices in Beijing, Taipei, Shanghai, and Singapore.
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