Mori Hamada & Matsumoto was the most successful law firm at the ALB Japan Law Awards, held on June 17, taking home 10 awards including the prestigious Japan Deal Firm of the Year and Japan Law Firm of the Year.

The firm also bagged the Litigation Specialist Law Firm of the year along with seven deal category awards: Debt Market Deal of the Year, Equity Market Deal of the Year, Energy and Resources Deal of the Year, Real Estate Deal of the Year, M&A Deal of the Year, TMT Deal of the Year and Japan Deal of the Year.

The Debt Market, TMT and M&A Deal of the Year awards were all related to Japanese mobile SoftBank Corp’s acquisition of a 72 percent stake in U.S. carrier Sprint Nextel Corp for about $21.6 billion – the largest ever outbound acquisition by a Japanese company. Mori Hamada provided Japanese legal advice to SoftBank on the transaction.

Mori Hamada also advised Suntory Beverage & Food on its $4.7 billion IPO in 2013, a transaction that was voted by a panel of judges as the Japan Law Awards 2014 Japan Deal of the Year.

Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Sullivan & Cromwell also advised on Suntory Beverage & Food’s IPO, and shared the Japan Deal of the Year honours.

“This IPO was probably the most publicised deal in Japan in 2013 due to the size – the largest on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2013 – and the fact that Suntory is already an extremely well-known brand and company,” said a lawyer on the Japan Law Awards judging panel.

“The deal is also unique in that the parent of the listed company is a privately owned company which is uncommon especially outside Japan, and requires addressing many issues.”

Mori Hamada’s strong showing across numerous deal award categories culminated in the firm winning the hotly contended award for Japan Law Firm of the Year.

“Last year, we saw a revival of the Japanese economy as a whole, and we were well positioned to be assigned very important and challenging matters from our wide client base,” said Toru Ishiguro, a partner at Mori Hamada, at the awards ceremony.

“We would like to help Japanese businesses with their expansion abroad into Asian countries, and support the growth of Asian countries going forward.”

The 10th annual Japan Law Awards, held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Tokyo, recognised Japan’s best law firms, legal work and lawyers across a total of 29 categories. The evening entertained more than 200 high-profile legal luminaries, including globally renowned law firms, in-house counsel and business leaders in Japan.

The table below shows the leading winners from the night. For a full list of winners, please click here.