Paul Hastings Announces Integration With Taiyo Law Office in Tokyo

September 12, 2005

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, LLP (Paul Hastings) is pleased to announce the integration of the Taiyo Law Office (Taiyo), its existing local firm alliance, into Paul Hastings. In connection with the integration, Norifusa Hashimoto, Yoshi Takatori, Jun Usami and Ayako Kawano will join Paul Hastings as partners.
“We are delighted that the recent changes in the law now permit our Japanese colleagues to join Paul Hastings” said Seth Zachary, Chairman of Paul Hastings. “Our decision to combine Taiyo into Paul Hastings reflects our desire to provide even stronger seamless, high-quality legal services that will maximize opportunities for our clients. As one of the first and largest international law firms in Asia, we are uniquely positioned to offer both local law expertise as well as a broad international platform to both Japanese and international clients.”

Kooki Suzuki, chair and one of the founding partners of the Tokyo office, commented: “As the firm continues to expand globally, Paul Hastings is fully committed to the continued growth of our Japan practice, our newly integrated Tokyo office and to developing the quality and depth of the legal services that we offer to our clients.” He added: “We expect to complete the integration over the next few weeks. Our full integration with Taiyo’s tremendous team of bengoshi is the culmination of a successful partnership in which the two firms have grown together to offer both Japanese and foreign clients a unique and seamless combination of global practice standards and Japanese law and business knowledge in banking and finance, M&A, capital markets, litigation and real estate areas.”

Paul Hastings has had a presence in Japan since 1988 when it became one of the first Western law firms to establish a Tokyo office to meet the growing needs of the firm’s Japanese clients. In the early 1990s, Paul Hastings’ initiative to provide seamless, integrated U.S. and Japanese legal services on multi-jurisdictional transactional matters to both Western and Japanese clients led to its partnership with Taiyo Law Office, a Japanese firm that has had a joint enterprise (tokutei kyodo jigyo) with Paul Hastings since its inception.

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, founded in 1951, is an international law firm with more than 1,000 lawyers located in 17 offices in Asia, Europe and North America.