Atsumi & Sakai has been rocked by the departure of partner Horoaki Takahashi and seven-strong team to Canadian firm Davis to create a joint venture to be named Davis & Takahashi.
Davis, the only full-service Canadian firm in Japan, is a project finance-focused law firm specialising in major infrastructure projects – in particular PPPs, M&A, energy and natural resources. Takahashi’s team specialises in banking, finance and capital markets.
According to Takahashi, the new team aims to capture domestic and international business from Japanese clients more effectively.
Davis managing partner Robert Seidel said the joint venture will enhance the firm’s effectiveness in advising clients looking to overseas markets from a base in Japan, as well as those wishing to do business in and with Japan.
“More and more Japanese businesses are looking to acquisitions across Asia and North and South America, particularly in the infrastructure, energy and natural resources sectors, and the new Davis team is well-placed to support this advance,” said Davis’s Tokyo managing partner Tony McArthur.
In November 2010, Atsumi took its own seven lawyer team from local rival TMI Associates including experienced partner Yutaka Sakai. The firm was the first local Japanese firm to elevate foreign qualified lawyers (gaiben) to its partnership when it promoted US lawyer Bonnie Dixon in 2005. Since then the firm has added Daniel Hounslow and Russell Kawahara to its partner ranks. To date, no other local Japanese law firm has followed Atsumi’s lead.
Atsumi currently has 91 lawyers, including 12 foreign lawyers who joined after the 2005 law change in Japan.ALB
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