Cross-Border legal practice is one of the most unique practice areas for lawyers. We don’t have many books for that in Japanese while those contents should have diversities because it depends on the country that your business partner is located.
Recently, the number of cross-border transactions is increasing. Those are not only huge projects for huge companies but also midsize or small projects for various companies. Even if the business per se doesn’t have cross-border aspects, it may procure materials from overseas. Currently, it’s quite rare to have no cross-border aspects in every business, isn’t it?
Meantime, cross-border legal practice requires specialty to deal with. At first, language should be different from your home country’s language. If you have business in Japan, you should have Japanese version of the contracts for various phases.
Second, you might have to talk with people not in Japan even though the project is located in Japan. Sometimes, multi-national companies have their regional headquarter in Singapore or Hong Kong. Then, they will come to negotiate with you. As you may guess, various members with different background will participate in this negotiation. So, you could not think everything with “common sense” for you. So, it’s necessary to determine business scheme and structure as much as possible before the execution of the contract. Hence, the length of the contract becomes longer. Then, it will take time and need expertise.
If your company size is huge, you might have enough budget to do legal due diligence and risk assessment.
However, even if your company is huge, if the project size is midsize or small, it’s not easy. You might think of using translation software and sign it to proceed your business. Meantime, translation software can’t do legal review. And it’s noted that Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Japan announced that AI contract review service is possibly considered as illegal service in light of Article 72 of the Attorney Act on June 6, 2022. So, you can’t use those for cross-border transaction.
Meantime, there are quite few small or midsize law firms handling cross-border legal practice.
Hattori Law was founded to change this situation in Japan. Please kindly feel free to contact us. We are here for you.
Hattori Law
We have expertise to support foreign investors in Japan. As you may know, Japan is literally “Japanese language society”, meaning, almost everything should be done in Japanese. This is obvious but you might feel it so much when you start your business here in Japan.
Or you might need business consultant for your Japan business since it’s a little bit different from American or European one. Hattori Law has a bilingual lawyer qualified in Japan and New York, USA. We have experience to support various companies including construction company, fund, startup, entertainment company, and so forth. Our lawyer has business and public sector experience. We could support you with business, legal, and public perspective.
We do our best to be the right law firm for you.
Contact Us: https://www.hrtlawfirm.com/contact-us
Level 8, Tri-Seven Roppongi, 7-7-7, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032, Japan
Tel: +81-3-6629-3520
FAQs
International lawyer is defined as a lawyer dealing with cross border case in Japan. Some of them have been admitted as an attorney at law not only in Japan but also in the United States, and so forth.
International law firm is defined as a law firm primarily dealing with cross border case in Japan.
Quick response and its preciseness should be the key for the best international law firm. It’s necessary to collect and select appropriate information for legal business judgment from limited resources in international business world. If the law firm responds quickly and correctly, the law firm should be the best international law firm for you.
It doesn’t matter whether the law firm has expertise in specific practice areas. Rather than that, various ranking firms weigh rankings in each practice areas.
The international law firm provides service to organize your business scheme, draft contracts, or negotiate with business counterparts for cross border deals. Sometimes, the firm cooperate with local law firms for providing appropriate legal service.
If you expand your business from foreign countries to Japan, you may have a plenty of trouble because of the differences of regulations, language, and so forth. If you have international law firm in Japan for your business, the firm will provide you sufficient explanation for business progress since they have plural viewpoint, meaning, Japanese viewpoint and foreign viewpoints.
It really depends while if the law firm has an international lawyer with law degree and legal qualification in US with experiences to deal with cross border business, the law firm should have sufficient experience to deal with international legal matters.
It will speak in Japanese and English. In Japan, almost everything should be done in Japanese. If you don’t feel any stress speaking in English with your lawyer, the lawyer should be a nicer choice for you.
It has easy access to legal updates regarding cross border legal developments via international lawyer’s organization, and so forth.
What is the approach of the best international law firm in Japan when it comes to communication and client service?
Hourly rate fee arrangement is a typical way at Hattori Law.