Atsumi & Sakai

Atsumi & Sakai (渥美坂井法律事務所, Atsumi Sakai Hōritsu Jimusho) is a law firm in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1994 as Atsumi & Usui. Under the name of Atsumi & Partners, the firm formed a foreign law joint venture in April 2005 in response to the increasingly international needs of clients' business activities. In November 2010, the current name Atsumi & Sakai was adopted following our affiliation with a group of lawyers led by Yutaka Sakai. With 195 lawyers (as of June 2023), by number of lawyers, Atsumi & Sakai became the 6th largest Japanese law firm focusing on corporate law, and the 8th largest law firm in Japan overall.[1]

Atsumi & Sakai
渥美坂井法律事務所
HeadquartersTokyo, Japan
No. of offices5
No. of lawyersTotal: 237
* Includes professionals at our offices and affiliate offices and firms within the group, excluding A-PAC INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM.

●Atsumi & Sakai: 214
- Japanese attorneys: 189
- Registered Foreign Lawyers in Japan: 12
- Foreign Lawyers (Not practicing law in Japan): 5
- Advisors, etc. (Not admitted to practice law): 4
- Voluntarily de-registered from the Bar Association due to being on secondment, etc.: 4
●Fukuoka Affiliate Office (A&S Fukuoka LPC*): 4
*Although A&S Fukuoka LPC is affiliated with Atsumi & Sakai Legal Professional Corporation, it is a separate corporation and is not a branch office of Atsumi & Sakai Legal Professional Corporation.
●New York Affiliate Office (Atsumi & Sakai New York LLP): 2
●London Office (Atsumi & Sakai Europe Limited): 3
●Frankfurt Affiliate Office (Atsumi & Sakai Europa GmbH - Rechtsanwälte und Steuerberater**): 7
●Janssen Foreign Law Joint Enterprise with Atsumi & Sakai: 3
**A corporation registered in Germany providing legal and tax advisory services
●Janssen Foreign Law Joint Enterprise with Atsumi & Sakai: 3
●A&S Tax and Accounting***: 6
**** Our Firm and A&S Tax and Accounting do not operate as a single entity. Further, no confidential information obtained in the course of services will be shared between the Firm and A&S Tax and Accounting without the consent of the client or as required by law.
*** No consideration for the referral of clients between our Firm and A&S Tax and Accounting will be given or received. A&S Tax and Accounting does not broker legal services for the purpose of earning remuneration, and the Firm does neither compensate A&S Tax and Accounting for the referral of clients to the Firm nor share legal fees with A&S Tax and Accounting.
●Atsumi Law Office:3
*Our firm and Atsumi Law Office is separate in management and operation, and do not share confidential client information without clients’ consent or other justifiable reasons. Given this, our firm, Atsumi Law Office does not conduct conflict check against parties involved in matters handled by each other firms before accepting client engagements.
*No payments of client referral fees or equivalent are made between our firm and Atsumi Law Office .

(As of October 2023)
Date founded1994
FounderHiroo Atsumi, Yutaka Sakai
Websitewww.aplawjapan.com/en

In addition to its head office in Tokyo, Atsumi & Sakai has affiliated offices in New York (Atsumi & Sakai New York LLP), London (Atsumi & Sakai Europe Limited), Frankfurt (Atsumi & Sakai Europa GmbH - Rechtsanwälte und Steuerberater), and a tie-up with a Vietnamese law firm in Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City. In December 2020, Atsumi & Sakai established a Kojimachi Office as a secondary office in Tokyo, and established a Fukuoka Affiliate Office (A&S Fukuoka LPC) in September 2022 (The Kojimachi Office became an independent entity under the name Atsumi Law Office in January 2023, and is currently an affiliate of Atsumi & Sakai).

In June 2022, Atsumi & Sakai established the Policy Research Institute as a platform to bring together lawyers and experts from various companies, organizations and public institutions[2][3].The Policy Research Institute engages in research, drafting of policy proposals, and publication activities with the aim of bridging gaps between policy and practice that have not been addressed by either public or private institutions.

Atsumi & Sakai has been awarded "Overseas Practice Law Firm of the Year" by Thomson Reuters' Asian Legal Business (ALB) for three consecutive years, in 2018, 2019, and 2020. In ALB's February 2022 edition, Atsumi & Sakai was featured as one of ten law firms that are furthering diversity and inclusion (D&I) in Japan's legal industry. ALB reported in the same article that 27% of all lawyers and 23% of partners at Atsumi & Sakai were women, and that the firm had set a goal of raising both ratios to 30%.[4]

In 2023, Atsumi & Sakai was ranked 5th in the overall ranking of Japanese law firms by Top Ranked Legal in the UK following the traditional "Big Four" firms Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, Nishimura & Asahi, and Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu.[5] The Lawyer, a London-based magazine, has also mentioned Atsumi & Sakai as a member of the "Big Five".[6]

Top Ranked Legal rates Atsumi & Sakai highly in a total of 17 practice areas, including five in the highest Band 1 (Banking & Finance, Capital Markets: Structured Finance, FinTech, Projects, and TMT) and an additional eight in Band 2 (Capital Markets, Capital Markets: Securitisation, Corporate Investigations, Funds, IP, Real Estate, Restructuring & Insolvency, and Shipping).[7]

Legal 500 rates Atsumi & Sakai in Tier 1 in Banking and Finance, FinTech, and Investment Funds, and Tier 2 in Antitrust and Competition, Corporate and M&A, Intellectual Property, Projects and Energy, Real Estate and Construction, Risk Management and Investigations, Shipping and TMT[8].IFLR 1000 ranks Atsumi & Sakai as Tier 1 in structured finance and securitization and Tier 2 in banking and project development and project finance[9].Chambers and Partners ranks founding partner Hiroo Atsumi among "Senior Statespeople" in the area of banking & finance.[10]


Practices

With a large number of qualified Japanese and foreign lawyers, Atsumi & Sakai can advise on New York and California state law, U.S. federal law, German law, Queensland state law, Australian federal law, English and Wales law, Korean law, and Indian law.[11]

The firm is a so-called full-service law firm and covers all major areas of law with its advice. The lawyers of Atsumi & Sakai has abundant practical experience and know-how in a wide range of fields including finance, M&A / investment projects, antitrust law, various funds, labor law, intellectual property, IT/TMT, international trade, litigation / arbitration / bankruptcy / business revitalization, life sciences, energy, sports / entertainment, and innovation fields such as crisis management and Fintech/IoT/AI.[12]

History
  • 1994 - Established as “Atsumi & Usui”
  • 2003 - Changed the name to “Atsumi & Partners”
  • April 2005 - Formed a foreign law joint venture; name changed to Atsumi & Sakai
  • July 2013 - Entered into a Foreign Law Joint Enterprise with Janssen Foreign Law Office; Janssen Foreign Law Office changed its name to “Janssen Foreign Law Joint Enterprise with Atsumi & Sakai”.
  • August 2014 - Opened Berlin Affiliate Office
  • January 2015 - Opened London Office as Atsumi & Sakai Europe Limited
  • December 2015 - Berlin Affiliate Office relocated to Frankfurt (Atsumi & Sakai Europa GmbH - Rechtsanwälte und Steuerberater)。
  • December 2020 - Opened Kojimachi Office of Atsumi & Sakai Legal Professional Corporation (Secondary office of Atsumi & Sakai Legal Professional Corporation)
  • February 2021 - Opened Atsumi & Sakai New York LLP
  • September 2022 - Opened Fukuoka Affiliate Office (A&S Fukuoka LPC)
  • January 2023 - Kojimachi Office became independent under the name Atsumi Law Office (becoming an affiliate office of Atsumi & Sakai Legal Professional Corporation)

References
  1. "【2023年最新】全国法律事務所ランキング300！所属弁護士数のほか、所在地や拠点数も調査". Retrieved 2023-09-13.
  2. "『法律事務所が政策提言 渥美坂井や西村あさひ、「研究所」設立』日本経済新聞朝刊及び電子版 2022年9月19日付". Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  3. "『未来の政策のあり方を示す「プロトタイプ政策研究所」 国内有数のルールメーカーたちが結集』Forbes JAPAN 2022年8月号". Retrieved 2022-06-27.
  4. "「ALB Japan D&I List 2022」Asian Legal Business (ALB) Japan Edition, February 2022, pp.4-6". Retrieved 2022-02-03.
  5. "Top Ranked Legal>Top Ranked Law Firms: Japan". Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  6. https://www.aplawjapan.com/archives/pdf/The_Lawyer_AsiaPacific_2013.pdf
  7. "Top Ranked Legal>Atsumi & Sakai". Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  8. "The Legal 500 > Atsumi & Sakai > Tokyo, JAPAN". The Legal 500. Retrieved 2022-03-22.
  9. "Atsumi & Sakai | IFLR1000". IFLR1000. Retrieved 2022-03-22.
  10. "Atsumi & Sakai - Firm Profile - Chambers and Partners". Chambers and Partners. Retrieved 2022-03-22.
  11. "Global Coverage". Atsumi & Sakai. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  12. "Practices | Atsumi & Sakai". www.aplawjapan.com/en. Retrieved 2022-06-07.


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