Bingham McCutchen has significantly strengthened its investment funds group in Tokyo with the hire of partners Christopher Wells and Tomoko Fuminaga, and five other lawyers from White & Case.

Wells specialises in the establishment of funds and fund-related investment matters in Japan, while Fuminaga advises financial institutions on corporate law and Japanese financial regulatory issues. Both lawyers also regularly help clients on cross-border M&A and regulatory matters.

“The arrival of Chris and Tomoko further enables us to provide the best on-the-ground capabilities in Tokyo for domestic and international institutional investors, as the Japanese market has seen recent progress under the new Japanese administration,” said Bingham McCutchen Tokyo managing partner, Hideyuki Sakai, in a statement.

Bingham hired partner Steve Lewis from Herbert Smith’s Tokyo office last November, and promoted Yukari Murayama and Goh Aizawa to its partnership in January.

Kanishk Verghese is North Asia journalist at ALB. Follow us onTwitter: @ALB_Magazine.