April 1, 2015 Firm News

Bangkok Office Starts Operations

Mori Hamada & Matsumoto is pleased to announce that we opened our Bangkok Office on April 1, 2015.

The opening of the Bangkok Office reflects the steady growth of our firm’s legal practice throughout Southeast Asia, and builds upon the services provided through our existing regional offices in Singapore and Yangon. We continue to see an increase in demand for Japan-related legal support from lawyers able to provide on-site services in Thailand. Our lawyers have been working on Thai matters for clients for many years and we have seconded our lawyers to leading Thai firms. To ensure that we continue to meet the challenges of this dynamic marketplace and provide world-class services for our clients, we have opened our Bangkok Office.

The Bangkok Office is headed by Representative Partner, Masatake Yone, who has over 35 years of practical experience handling a broad range of international transactions. He is joined by Hidetomo Futami, who has been working in Thailand since 2012, and Seiji Akimoto, who has relocated to Bangkok from Tokyo. Both Hidetomo Futami and Seiji Akimoto have significant experience in cross-border matters. The Bangkok Office is also supported with the broad-based legal expertise of our lawyers in our domestic offices in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka, as well as our lawyers in our other overseas offices, including those in Singapore and Yangon. The addition of the Bangkok Office enhances our ability to meet our clients’ diverse legal needs in Thailand and in the Southeast and South Asia regions generally, and to provide on-site services to private and governmental entities in those regions for Japan-related legal matters.

Our Bangkok Office is located in the same building as Chandler & Thong-Ek Law Offices Limited and we will continue to work closely with that firm as our main source of support for Thai related legal matters. The two firms will continue to exchange secondees.

Following the opening of our offices in Singapore in 2012 and Yangon in 2014, this new office in Bangkok enables us to draw upon the experience and expertise we have gained handling complex legal matters specific to rapidly growing economies, as well as our years of experience handling a variety of cross-border transactions and projects, and positions us to expand our legal services for businesses throughout Asia.

April 2015

Mori Hamada & Matsumoto

Lawyers at Bangkok Office

The Bangkok Office is headed by Representative Partner, Masatake Yone. He is assisted by Seiji Akimoto and Hidetomo Futami, who provide on-site services as resident lawyers at the Bangkok Office. Their backgrounds are introduced below.

Masatake Yone

Bangkok Office Representative Partner

TEL(Bangkok):+66-2-633-8352
TEL(Tokyo):03-5223-7710)
E-mail:masatake.yone@mhmjapan.com

Masatake Yone became a partner of the firm in 1989 and has been involved in a wide range of corporate legal matters in Japan and abroad. In particular, he is recognized as a pioneer in the field of mergers & acquisitions in Japan, handling a number of notable international corporate acquisitions. For over 30 years he has also been engaged in various matters related to investment involving not only Thailand, but also India, Indonesia, Vietnam and other Asian countries. He is a frequent lecturer at educational institutions, including Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International Legal Strategy and the University of Tokyo Executive Management Program, and he is also involved in activities organized by Japanese bar associations to assist survivors of the devastating earthquake, and resulting tsunami and nuclear accident, that occurred in the northeastern part of Japan in 2011.

Bar Admissions

admitted in Japan, 1981; New York, 1987
Daini Tokyo Bar Association

Background

The University of Tokyo (LL.B., 1978)
Cornell Law School (LL.M., 1985)
with Sullivan & Cromwell, New York (1985-1986)
with Freshfields, London (1986-1987)
Lecturer at Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International Legal Strategy (2000-2004)
Lecturer for the University of Tokyo Executive Management Program (2008-2012)

Activities

Vice President of Daini Tokyo Bar Association (2011)
Vice President of Post-East Japan Great Earthquake Reconstruction Headquarters established by the three bar associations in Tokyo (Dai-ichi, Daini and Tokyo Bar Associations) (2011)

Seiji Akimoto

Of Counsel

TEL(Bangkok):+66-2-633-8351
TEL(Tokyo):03-5220-1818
E-mail:seiji.akimoto@mhmjapan.com

Seiji Akimoto’s primary areas of practice are corporate acquisitions and reorganizations, and he specializes in cross-border mergers & acquisitions. He has abundant experience handling corporate acquisitions and investments involving companies located in countries across the globe, especially those in Asia. He has written extensively on mergers & acquisitions and related legislation in Asia, notably “The Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law” (The 2010 Guide to Japan edited by IFLA).

Bar Admissions

admitted in Japan, 2002; New York, 2009
Daini-Tokyo Bar Association

Background

The University of Tokyo (LL.B., 1999)
with Sony Corporation (1999-2001)
University of Chicago Law School (LL.M., 2008)
with Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Chicago (2008-2009)

Languages

 Japanese and English

Hidetomo Futami

Of Counsel

TEL(Bangkok):+66-2-633-8350
TEL(Tokyo) :03-6212-8311
E-mail:hidetomo.futami@mhmjapan.com

Hidetomo Futami joined the firm in 2002 having previously worked at law firms in Thailand and Myanmar and has continued to hone his particular expertise in cross-border transactions involving Southeast Asian countries, including direct investments, mergers & acquisitions and securities and finance matters. His expertise extends to laws and regulations relating to doing business in Thailand and its neighboring countries, such as corporate laws, the Alien Business Law, labor laws and arbitration laws. He has also broad experience involving other Southeast Asian countries including Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. He has contributed to many books, articles, and seminars featuring mergers & acquisitions and legal systems in Asia.

Bar Admissions

admitted in Japan, 2002; New York, 2009
Daini Tokyo Bar Association

Background

The University of Tokyo (LL.B., 1999)
Columbia University School of Law (LL.M., 2008)
with Holland & Knight LLP, New York (2008)
with Chandler & Thong-ek Law Offices Limited, Bangkok, Thailand (2009)
with Myanmar Legal Services Limited, Yangon, Myanmar (part-time) (2012 to 2014)
with Chandler & Thong-ek Law Offices Limited, Bangkok, Thailand (2012 to date) (with the MHM Bangkok Office at the same offices from 2013 to date)

Languages

Japanese, English and Thai

Practical Experience in Asia

Thailand and Myanmar