Mori Hamada & Matsumoto and Morrison & Foerster stood out among the crowd at the ALB 2014 Japan Law Awards on June 17, taking home some of the most coveted awards including the Japan Law Firm of the Year and the International Deal Firm of the Year.

The 10th annual event, 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 Japan Law Awards is the premier event that celebrates the fantastic job that lawyers, both private practice and in-house, did in the past year. The accolades are all the more valuable as they are primarily peer-driven,” said the guest of honour for the event, Arshad Karim, Managing Director and Legal Counsel for Nikko Asset Management Co and vice-president of The Japanese In-House Counsel Network.

“A quick review of the nominations this year will tell anyone that exciting deals have been aplenty, so that's good news for the industry.”

“With the government’s quantitative easing and Prime Minister Abe’s growth plan, investor sentiment should rise and benefit Japan’s business and legal sectors,” said Andrew Smart, Managing Director of the Legal Media Group at Thomson Reuters.

“The ALB Japan Law Awards reaffirms this momentum and provides its dealmakers with an evening of networking and celebration.”

Mori Hamada & Matsumoto was the most successful law firm of the night, taking home ten awards including the prestigious Japan Deal Firm of the Year and 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 & Matsumoto, 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.”

Mori Hamada, as well as Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Sullivan & Cromwell, won the award for the Japan Deal of the Year – Suntory Beverage & Food’s IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Among international law firms, Morrison & Foerster bagged awards for the Tax Law Firm of the Year and International Deal Firm of the Year, while Herbert Smith Freehills, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Baker & McKenzie won awards for International Arbitration Law Firm of the Year, Employment Law Firm of the Year and Corporate Citizen/CSR Law Firm of the Year, respectively.

Anderson Mori was also acknowledged for its legal capabilities overseas, winning trophies for the Best Southeast Asia Practice and Best China Practice.

In-house counsel were also recognised at the event. The Walt Disney Company (Japan) was revealed as the Japan In-House Team of the Year, while Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities bagged the awards for the Banking and Financial Services In-House Team of the Year and International Investment Bank In-House Team of the Year.

The night also recognised individual excellence, with Morrison & Foerster’s Ken Siegel named Managing Partner of the Year, and JP Morgan Securities Japan’s Jeremy Entwistle crowned the In-House Lawyer of the Year.

“It is a great honour to be recognised by my peers for the hard work that we do behind the scenes to help get transactions done,” said Entwistle.

“It is really with the support of so many people from this industry that allows me to build the relationships to do good work. We have a great legal community here in Japan that I’m really happy to be a part of.”

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