With more than 40 lawyers and consultants in our Japan group, our International practice includes extensive experience of Japan and a number of our lawyers, consultants and staff interested in the group speak Japanese. Firmwide our lawyers, consultants and staff speak more than 40 languages.
Recognizing the strong economic ties between Japan and the US, McGuireWoods proudly offers a Japan practice group that includes lawyers and support staff in the US, as well as in our London office, fluent in Japanese who have decades of experience representing the interests of Japanese clients. The group’s lawyers combine legal experience with an innate understanding and sensitivity to Japanese culture and the essential nuances of Japan-America business relationships, enabling them to offer counsel and advice attuned to the Japanese way of doing business. Our lawyers also frequently speak and provide training programs on topics relevant to conducting business between Japan and the US.
Global access to experienced legal services and advanced technology are essential to the success of international business. McGuireWoods uses client-focused teams from all of our offices to provide a full range of legal services to US and overseas clients doing Japanese business – whether worldwide or doing business in the US, UK or EU. In addition to our own in-house capabilities, we have close working relationships with lawyers in Japan and around the globe, including through our membership of the LNI global legal network.
McGuireWoods serves public, private, government and nonprofit clients from many industries, including energy resources, automotive, manufacturing, healthcare, technology and transportation.
Areas of practice relevant for our Japanese practice include: Mergers & Acquisitions; Joint Ventures (often through partnerships, joint ventures or similar collaborative arrangements); Litigation & Arbitration (lawsuits in the US, UK and Europe are much more common than in Japan, so we try to help clients avoid lawsuits, but if a client does become involved in litigation, we can help Japanese clients understand and comply with the requirements the American and other legal systems impose, many of which have no Japanese equivalent); US Food and Drug Administration Regulatory Compliance; Labor & Employment; Banking, Capital Markets & Finance; Related Derivatives and Hedging Programs; Tax Planning (for international operations, it is especially important to receive experienced tax counsel as part of a worldwide strategy to decrease the overall taxes of the enterprise, including issues regarding international trade, such as import-export issues, duty planning, and admissibility requirements for various products); Risk Assessment & Analysis; Immigration (advising on immigration issues in order to send personnel from Japan to the US for training, management and other purposes is important); and Intellectual Property.
Through McGuireWoods Consulting, our full-service public affairs subsidiary, we also provide Japanese companies with assistance on Government Relations matters in the US, and also help them have a voice in shaping US legislation affecting their businesses and industries. McGuireWoods Consulting is located in Washington, DC, and numerous US state capitals, as well as in Europe.
Our lawyers and consultants maintain relationships with The Japan-American Society of Georgia, Inc, the Japan Business Association of Southern California, the Japan External Trade Organization, the Business Association of Japan, and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.