City-Yuwa Partners

Number of partners: 70
Number of lawyers: 170
Languages: Japanese, English, German, Korean

Firm Overview:
With more than 160 fully-qualified Japanese lawyers, four foreign attorneys and several other professional staff including judicial scriveners and an immigration law specialist, CITY-YUWA is one of the leading law firms in Japan.

Main Areas of Practice: 

The areas of practice of CITY-YUWA encompass virtually all aspects of international and domestic business and business transactions. They include:

■ Corporate and commercial (general corporate, corporate governance, venture capital/private equity, regulatory, environmental, foreign direct investment, and tax)

■ Finance, securities and insurance (banking and other financial transactions, capital markets, structured finance, acquisition finance and securitisation, asset management, investment funds and J-REITs, derivative transactions, insurance, regulatory, and resolution of financial transaction disputes, including ADR)

■ Mergers and acquisitions (domestic and crossborder, share transfer takeover bids, restructuring of corporate groups by means of business transfer, merger, demerger, share exchange or share transfer, squeeze-outs, proposing protective measures against potential hostile acquisitions, proxy fights, and large shareholding reports)

■ Real estate (real estate funds and J-REITs, real estate finance, real estate transactions, and real estate disputes)

■ Bankruptcy and restructuring (representation of debtors, creditors, sponsors, investors, suppliers and other business entities in restructuring and bankruptcy matters, including civil rehabilitation proceedings, corporate reorganisation proceedings, out-of-court restructurings, bankruptcy proceedings and liquidations, and acting as a liquidator)

■ Litigation, arbitration (domestic and cross-border), and ADR (litigating and resolving disputes on various commercial transactions, real estate, financial transactions, industrial accidents including severe accident involving nuclear power plants, debt collection and execution, and family law)

■ Intellectual property (patent litigation/arbitration, advice on act against unfair competition, designs, trademarks and copyrights, license agreements/technology transfer agreements, patent pool licensing, advice on patent strategy), and information and communications technology (data protection, security technology, web service, online advertisement)

■ Labour and employment (general consul-tations on personnel and labour matters, collective bargaining, and labour litigation and arbitration)

■ Compliance (internal controls, white collar crime, and crisis management)

■ Antitrust and competition (advice on antimonopoly law, act against unfair competition, subcontract law and on unjustifiable premiums law, prior consultation with the JFTC, countermeasures against on-site inspection by the JFTC, countermeasures against charges by a fair trade authority abroad, and assistance in setting up compliance systems relating to competition law)

■ Renewable energy (structuring project entities and transactions to best conform to the renewable energy law and its regulatory regime and energy policy, conducting legal due diligence including checking all necessary land use approvals and environmental permits, exclusivity arrangements, ground leases and easements, power purchases, grid connection, equipment supply, construction, development and joint ventures, and project finance)

The Team: 

CITY-YUWA has many lawyers with experience working in various fields. Such former professional experiences include serving as a Japanese Fair Trade Commission official, public prosecutors, and high-ranking governmental officials, and acting as in-house counsel for financial institutions, trading companies and other business corporations. Many of the lawyers at CITY-YUWA have other professional qualifications, including some licensed as patent lawyers and certified public accountants, and many lawyers are licensed in both Japan and foreign jurisdictions. This broad professional expertise enables CITY-YUWA to offer practical advice and to solve any legal issues confronting clients. Many partners and associates at CITY-YUWA have obtained LLM degree and other accreditation in the US or the UK, and have relevant work experience at leading law firms in the US, the UK, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Korea, Vietnam, India and Singapore, and even at the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris as well as at Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC). With this broad professional expertise, the lawyers of CITY-YUWA understand the concerns of, and challenges being faced by, overseas clients as well as the differences in business cultures, and can offer practical advice and solve any complex legal issues confronting clients. Among the leading law firms in Japan, CITY-YUWA further distinguishes itself by offering full-fledged German and Korean practices, led by partners with Japanese lawyer’s license with long working experience in Germany and Korea, respectively.

Clients: 

The firm’s private-sector clients include established companies and start-ups, both domestic and international, from a broad spectrum of industries, including energy and natural resources, life sciences, foods, health care, manufacturing, fashion and retail, transportation and logistics, hotels and leisure, telecommunications, construction, real estate, finance, asset management, IT, internet and information and communications technology. CITY-YUWA also represents clients in the public sector, including governmental institutions. The firm’s success is demonstrated not only by its roster of clients, but also by its ability to provide timely, high quality, practical, and cost-effective legal services.