Mori Hamada & Matsumoto

Managing Partners: Koichiro Iida, Gaku Ishiwata, Yuto Matsumura

Number of partners: 166

Number of lawyers: 669

Languages: Bahasa (Malay and Indonesia), English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Myanmar, Thai, Vietnamese

Firm Overview:

Mori Hamada & Matsumoto (MHM) is one of the largest full-service Tokyo headquartered international law firms. A significant proportion of the firm’s work is international in nature, representing clients in cross-border transactions, litigation and other dispute resolution proceedings.

The Firm’s Professionals:

The firm has over 660 lawyers and 590 support staff (including patent attorneys, licensed tax accountants, legal assistants and translators). The firm’s senior lawyers include a number of highly respected practitioners and leaders from the Japanese and international legal community, including prominent law professors from the University of Tokyo, and a former Prosecutor-General from the Public Prosecutors Office. The firm also has experienced lawyers qualified in the US, England and Wales, the People’s Republic of China, the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and more.

Offices & Asia Practice Group:

MHM has very strong full-service local law practices in Bangkok (Chandler MHM Limited) and Yangon (Myanmar Legal MHM Limited) and it is expanding its range of local law services in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. The firm also has offices in Singapore (its ASEAN hub), Shanghai and Beijing. It has strong working relationships with leading firms throughout Asia (as well as in Europe and the Americas), which enables it to work for its clients as a single, integrated team.

MHM has expanded domestically by opening offices in Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Takamatsu.

Main Areas of Practice:

Banking and finance, capital markets (including securitisation & derivatives and J-REITs), competition/antitrust, construction, corporate/M&A, crisis management, dispute resolution, employment, fintech, insurance, Intellectual Property, international trade, investment funds, life sciences, projects and energy, real estate, restructuring/insolvency, tax, and private wealth law.

Recent Representations:

◆Advising Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in the take private transaction of NTT Docomo by NTT through a USD 40 billion tender offer, the largest-ever in Japan.

◆Advising Nippon Paint Holdings (Japan's biggest paint maker) in the USD 12.2 billion business integration of Nippon Paint Holdings and Singapore-based Wuthelam Holdings.

◆Advising Hitachi in the take private transaction of Hitachi Metal by a consortium led by Bain Capital at an aggregate purchase price of USD 7.5 billion.

◆Advising truck maker AB Volvo in the strategic alliance of AB Volvo and Japan's Isuzu Motor, which includes Isuzu buying Volvo's UD Trucks.

◆Advising Bain Capital in the USD 1.4 billion takeover of Japanese medical services group Nichii Gakkan by Bain Capital.

◆Japan Post Holdings Co., Ltd., Japan Post Bank Co., Ltd., and Japan Post Insurance Co., Ltd. in their JPY1.43 trillion concurrent global initial public offerings and global follow-on offerings

◆SoftBank Corp in its JPY2.6 trillion global initial public offering and global follow-on offering

◆NTT Finance Corporation in its JPY1 trillion senior notes offering and USD7 billion senior notes and EUR2 billion senior notes offering

◆Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., Ltd. in arranging “value securitisation” for Spiber Inc., a biotech venture company

◆The Japanese Bankers Association and Japan Syndication and Loan-trading Association in connection with the forthcoming permanent cessation of LIBOR.

◆Represents Toshiba Corporation in lawsuits brought by former or current shareholders in tort alleging “improper” disclosure of financial information in past years

◆Daiwa House in launching an open-end fund for logistics facilities in Japan

◆Represents GMO Internet, Inc. in its issuance of the first Japanese Yen-based stable coin

◆Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. in its investigation by the third-party investigation committee

◆The Ministry of Finance of Japan in research project on the taxation of distributions and the tax deferral of an exchange of shares in foreign jurisdictions

◆Represents Japan Post in famous class-action types of litigation under the Employment Contract Act, which were filed with Sapporo, Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kochi, Fukuoka and Nagasaki District Courts. Around 180 employees with fixed-term employment contract are plaintiffs

◆KOIKE Co., Ltd., the apparel and fashion goods import company, in restructuring through the civil rehabilitation proceedings

◆Represented Teijin Pharma in its purchase of a portfolio of four non-core type 2 diabetes products sold in Japan from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited which closed on April 1, 2021

◆Provides total legal support to Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)* with respect to its project assisting Japanese companies’ China business from China’s economic security/export controls perspectives

*JETRO, established pursuant to JETRO Act, is a government-related organization that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world.

◆Represents ENEOS Corporation in its acquisition of Japan Renewable Energy for JPY 200 billion from Goldman Sachs and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, GIC

◆Launch of SUDACHI Small Amount and Short Term Insurance

◆Advises AEON Mall Co., Ltd. on its joint venture with Shwe Taung Group to develop and operate shopping malls in Myanmar. Announced by Aeon in August 2020. this is one of the largest real estate development projects in Myanmar

◆Yamato Kogyo Co., Ltd. in its sale of shares of Korean subsidiary to Daehan Steel Co., Ltd.