Akiko Yamakawa

Practice Areas

Labour and Employment / Dispute Resolution and Investigations

Akiko is the head of our employment team. She specialises in employment law, dispute resolution and financial regulatory matters. She provides day-to-day employment advice to various multi-national clients, and her litigation experience includes employment litigation and general commercial litigation and arbitration. She has also led numerous teams as they conducted internal and regulatory investigations. Akiko’s clients hail from a broad range of sectors including financial services and multi-national corporations. Since August 2017, Akiko has also been serving as a member of the Basic Sub-Committee for the government’s Labour Policy Council, and in October 2021 she was also named a Public Relations Officer for the JCAA （The Japan Commercial Arbitration Association）.

Admitted as a Japanese bengoshi (lawyer) in 1999, Akiko is a member of the Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association and the New York Bar. She was educated at the University of Tokyo (LLB, 1997) and the Legal Research and Training Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan (1999). She completed an LL.M at Harvard Law School in 2003 and is fully bilingual.

Career

Admitted to practice in 1999 (Japan) and in 2004 (New York)

Komatsu, Koma & Nishikawa (1999-2000)

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (2000-2017)

Vanguard Lawyers Tokyo (2017-)

Professional Memberships

Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association (1999-present)

New York State Bar Association (2004-present)

Member of the Basic committee of the government’s Labour Policy Council (2017-present)

Public Relations Officer for the JCAA (The Japan Commercial Arbitration Association) (2021-present)

Awards