The Walt Disney Company (Japan) and Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities took home the top in-house honours at ALB’s Japan Law Awards 2014 in Tokyo.

The Walt Disney Company won the TMT In-House Team of the Year award, and was revealed as the Japan In-House Team of the Year.

“Disney has a good reputation and its legal team has been working well with other businesses,” said a judge on the Japan Law Awards panel of judges.

Walt Disney’s deals with Japanese animation film company Studio Ghibli are also very meaningful and are having a good influence on developing Japanese animations overseas, the judge added.

In other in-house award categories, Morgan Stanley was declared the Banking and Financial Services In-House Team of the Year and the International Investment Bank In-House Team of the Year. Mizuho Securities Co took home the prize for the Japanese Investment Bank Team of the Year, while ITOCHU Corp won the Innovative In-House Team of the Year award.

The night also recognised individual excellence, with 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 10th annual Japan Law Awards, held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Tokyo on June 17, 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.