Mark Lee has left Debevoise & Plimpton to join Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe’s Hong Kong office as a partner. He is the sixth new partner to join the firm’s China offices in 2007. Lee is joined by of counsel, David Cho, and associate Una Cho, all from Debevoise & Plimpton. Lee’s corporate M&A and private equity practice focuses on Korea; he joins Orrick’s Korea team which includes Eugene Chang, a Tokyo-based finance partner, and Michelle Taylor, a Hong Kong-based partner and head of Orrick’s regional structured finance team.
Source: www.lawfuel.com

Boston-based Ropes & Gray has announced plans to open its first international office in Tokyo, Japan by mid-September. The firm is still waiting approval from the Daini Tokyo Bar Association. The new office will be known as Ropes & Gray Gaikokuho Jimu Bengoshi Jimusho and will be launched by two resident IP partners. Jim DeGraw and Steve Baughman will both move to Tokyo from Boston; the firm will also hire two associates fluent in Japanese.
Source: www.boston.bizjournals.com

Bingham McCutchen has recruited Japanese lawyer, Hiroshi Iyori, for its Tokyo office. Iyori joins Bingham’s antitrust practice from Asahi Law Offices. Prior to entering private practice, he was the secretary general and then commissioner of the Japan Fair Trade Commission. Bingham plans to expand its Tokyo office to more than 50 attorneys by the fall. The Japanese practice focuses on large-scale cross-border, corporate, mergers and acquisitions, finance, antitrust and intellectual property matters.
Source: www.nylawyer.com

Bingham McCutchen has merged with Tokyo insolvency firm, New Tokyo International Law Office. The merger will put the number of Japanese lawyers in the office to 50. In January of this year, Bingham merged with another Tokyo firm, Sakai & Mimura.
Source: www.thelawyer.com

Capital markets lawyer Bradley Edmister has joined Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy’s Tokyo office as Counsel. He comes from Sullivan & Cromwell, with whom he had for eight years, five of which were in Tokyo. Edmister has extensive experience in a variety of corporate matters including M&A, capital markets, finance, private equity, and joint ventures. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Milbank was the first American firm to open in Japan. Its other Asian offices are located in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Source: www.antara.co.id

Baker & McKenzie hired seven partners from Japanese firm Asahi Koma Law Offices and a linked operation for its Tokyo office. The firm hired name partner Fumio Koma, intellectual property partner Yasunori Hashiguchi, insolvency partner Shinichiro Abe and German-qualified counsel Markus Janssen. A group of four associates and counsel are also joining, putting Baker’s numbers in Tokyo up to 111. Baker & McKenzie is the largest practice of any foreign firm in Japan; about 75 percent of its lawyers there are locally-qualified bengoshi. There is a possibility that the firm may open a second office in Osaka in the future.
Source: www.legalweek.com

Morgan Lewis & Bockius acquired a new partner from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison for its Tokyo office. Lisa Yano joins the team as a co-managing partner and co-head of the firm’s local joint venture, Morgan Lewis-TMI. Yano focuses her work on M&A and private equity transactions; she has practiced in Tokyo for over 15 years. Opened in 1998, Morgan Lewis’ eight-lawyer Tokyo office now has five partners.
Source: www.legalweek.com

A month after the announcement of the opening of a Hong Kong office, Bingham McCutchen plans to also open an office in Tokyo with 22 lawyers. The firm’s focus in Tokyo will be on its global restructuring practice. xJapan is the second-largest legal market in Asia for American attorneys, according to The National Law Journal. There are nearly twice as many attorneys there as there were in 2000 — but still remains much less than China — at 470 U.S.-based attorneys. The U.S. firm with the largest Japanese office is Morrison & Foerster, which opened in Tokyo in 1987 and now has more than 80 attorneys.
Source: www.law.com