Lawyer on Air

Overcoming glass ceilings, cultural differences and English language challenges, Junko Mukoyama is my next inspirational guest on Lawyer on Air. She explains how Japan has changed so much in just one generation but also the barriers she came up against in her career and how she took control of her career and ended up smashing through them.

If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we’d love it if you would leave us a message here!

In this episode you’ll hear:

About Junko

Junko is a board member and senior corporate counsel of Avaya Japan Ltd.  Avaya provides products and services to enhance and simplify communications and collaborations.  She is in charge of all legal matters for the Japan operations including contract negotiation, compliance, personal data protection and dispute resolution. Before she joined Avaya in 2004, she worked for Yuasa and Hara as a trademark attorney and for Nihon Unisys Ltd.  She is a member of the Japan Patent Attorney Association and New York State Bar.  She received LLB from Chuo University, and Master of Laws from University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign and Waseda University.  She has been studying bankruptcy and IP at a graduate school of law and published articles in bankruptcy and IP fields.  She is a member of AIPPI, INTA, JTA, ABI and INSOL.

Connect with Junko

To connect with Junko, please contact Catherine O’Connell

Links

Ikiru Bokura 生きる僕ら：原田マハ

Connect with Catherine

Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catherine.oconnell.148

Twitter: https://twitter.com/oconnelllawyer

What would it be like to work in the Tokyo office of a major law firm such as Morrison & Foerster (MoFo)? Well in this episode we bring you the Managing Partner of the Tokyo office, Ken Siegel, sharing his insights and experience with over 25 years of working in Japan at the top of M&A law. It is my great pleasure to give you this rare opportunity to hear from Ken about the latest on hiring, retaining talent and the future of law in Tokyo.

If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we’d love it if you would leave us a message here!

In this episode you’ll hear:

About Ken

Ken Siegel is the Managing Partner of Morrison & Foerster’s Tokyo office and the head of the office’s 50 attorney M&A team. Ken’s practice focuses on the representation of high-technology companies in acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances.

Ken has been consistently ranked as one of the leading U.S. attorneys in Japan. Among other things, he is the only attorney rated as a “Star Individual” for M&A in Japan (the level above Band 1) by Chambers Global, having been ranked at this level for twelve consecutive years (2011 – 2022 editions), and having been ranked in Band 1 for the prior decade. According to Chambers Asia Pacific, Ken is “commercial and pragmatic, an incredible M&A attorney” who “deserves tremendous credit for his M&A practice” and has “outstanding acumen, experience and leadership.”

Ken has been resident in Japan since 1994, and managing partner of the Tokyo office since 1997.

Ken received his B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from Amherst College in 1981. He studied Japanese language at Stanford University’s Inter-University Center for Japanese Language in Tokyo and at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), receiving a graduate degree in International Affairs in 1983. He received his J.D. degree in 1986 from the University of Chicago Law School.

Connect with Ken

Please connect with Catherine to be introduced

Links

Mixology Heritage: https://www.jrtk.jp/hibiya-okuroji/shop/detail_00013/

Kinobi: https://kyotodistillery.jp/

Connect with Catherine

Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catherine.oconnell.148

Twitter: https://twitter.com/oconnelllawyer

What do you do when you have two competing loves, such as Japanese language and law? Olivia Nomura didn’t settle for one, she went for both. In this episode, Olivia shares how she was able to become a Japanese speaking foreign lawyer working in Tokyo for a big international firm, who now manages exciting multi-jurisdictional M&A deals. Oliva shows us how she perseveres in the short term for her long term goals and finds innovative ways around obstacles that pop up along the way.

If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we’d love it if you would leave us a message here!

In this episode you’ll hear:

About Olivia Nomura

See Olivia's full bio here.

Connect with Olivia

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-nomura/

Links

Craft Gin Bar Sicx: https://www.fec-inc.jp/

To be fair by Rosemary Riddell https://www.amazon.co.jp/Be-Fair-Confessions-District-Court/dp/1990003168

Hidden Brain Podcast: https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain

Lumio lamp: https://www.hellolumio.com/

Connect with Catherine

Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catherine.oconnell.148

Twitter: https://twitter.com/oconnelllawyer

Welcome to the first episode of Season 3! You will love the Lawyer Extraordinaire for Episode One: Mariko Mimura. Mariko is a great example that stepping upwards and outwards is entirely possible at any stage of your career. She is also living proof that you can go from working in-house and return to a law firm role as an attractive value add to a firm having excelled on the inside of business at the coal face. She is an inspiration for how we can continue to reinvent ourselves on our own terms.

If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we’d love it if you would leave us a message here!

In this episode you’ll hear:

About Mariko

Mariko graduated with an LLB from Waseda University in 1980, graduated with an M.A. from the Chuo University Graduate School of Law and graduated from the Ph.D. course in 1989. Mariko was admitted to the Bar in Japan in 1992 and joined the firm of Braun, Moriya, Hoashi & Kubota from 1992-1993, followed by Takaishi Law Office from 1993-1995. In 1995 Mariko joined Nishimura and Partners, now renamed Nishimura and Asahi

During the first phase – from 1995 to 2004, Mariko gained overseas experience in law practice in the United States on secondment to the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP (1999-2000) and was secondment in-house to a startup battery company as Vice President and General Counsel of Quallion LLC from 2000-2001. Upon returning to Japan Mariko took up a senior role in-house as ExecutiveOfficer and Legal Executive Manager of GE Healthcare Japan Corporation (2005-2009). Mariko has held outside role Part-time Statutory Auditor of GE Healthcare affiliate company Nihon Medi-Physics Co., Ltd in 2008. From 2018 she became Outside Director, of childrens’ toy-maker Takara TOMY Company, Ltd and is also an Outside Director at precious metal company, Tanaka Holdings (Tanaka Kinzoku)

She has further in-house experience as Director of Legal and Intellectual Property Executive Manager of Novartis Holding Japan K.K. from 2010-2015, was concurrently Corporate Officer and General Counsel at Novartis (2010-2015), and then became Director of Glaxo Smith Kline KK from 2015-2018.

In her 60’s Mariko returned to Nishimura & Asahi as Of Counsel where she focuses on the area of life science.

Connect with Mariko via Catherine

Links

Shangri-La Hotel, Tokyo Station: http://www.shangri-la.com/tokyo/shangrila/about/

The first woman partner at a major international law firm in Tokyo is my guest in the finale of Season Two of Lawyer on Air. Not only is she a Partner but she is about to take her second maternity leave, so this is an episode not to be missed for anyone considering taking leave to spend more time with their family or considering a sabbatical and wondering how it might affect your career.

If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we’d love it if you would leave us a message here!

In this episode you’ll hear:

About Xue

Xue is a Partner in Allen & Overy’s Tokyo office, one of the leading international law firms globally, and specializes in the development and financing of energy and infrastructure projects, and on energy transition projects and initiatives. Xue’s clients include leading international energy companies, financial institutions and government or multilateral agencies involved in these projects across the world, and she regularly works on a wide range of energy and infrastructure projects in Africa, the Middle East, Europe APAC and LatAm. Xue’s practice also covers Japan and China, and prior to the pandemic she also used to spend a significant amount of time in China on a fly in fly out basis.

Xue was born in China, but spent most of her formative years in Germany before moving to the UK for university. Since university, she has also lived in Paris, London, Brussels, Hong Kong and spent about 6 months travelling the world before starting her legal career. She joined A&O as a trainee in London in 2017 and has been with A&O ever since. In 2011, she had the opportunity to come to Japan for a client secondment with Mitsui bussan, where she spent 18 months on secondment, working as part of the infrastructure business unit. She rejoined A&O’s Tokyo office in 2013 and has been building her practice and career here ever since, and was promoted as the first female partner in the Tokyo office in 2020.

Xue is a mother of one (about to be two) and lives in Tokyo with her husband. She’s passionate about promoting diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and would love to see more women and diversity in leadership positions. In her spare time, she likes to cook, snowboard, cycle, run and travel the world.

Connect with Xue

LinkedIn

Links

Mama Luisa’s Restaurant: http://www.luisa-table.com/

How to avoid a climate change disaster by Bill Gates 

Connect with Catherine

Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair

Being raised in a financially struggling family in the Philippines did not stop my guest Lani Vinas from becoming a top level legal director in a law firm in Japan. Whatever you might think are your limitations, this episode will blow them all away for you. Lani tells us her story of her childhood and how her hard work combined with the generosity of others made it possible for her to be where she is today working at a premier IP firm in Osaka, Japan.

If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we’d love it if you would leave us a message here!

In this episode you’ll hear:

About Laarni

Laarni Victoria Quidoles Vinas (Lani) is a triple-qualified lawyer (Attorney-at-Law in the Philippines and New York and Solicitor of the Supreme Court in England and Wales).

As a Legal Director of SHUSAKU YAMAMOTO, one of the leading intellectual property law firms in Japan, she handles IP portfolios of some of the firm’s wide range of clients from the U.S., Japan, Europe, Asia and Philippines, including inventions from Nobel Prize winners, blue-chip Fortune 500 companies, national governments, globally-renowned universities, research institutes, and start-up companies. Lani’s specialization includes technology law, healthcare regulatory work, intellectual property, corporate governance and compliance, as well as data privacy.

Connect with Lani

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laarni-victoria-q-vinas/

Links

Know your Rights Japan: https://www.facebook.com/knowyourrightsjp/

Renegaid:

https://renegaidcommunitysupport.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/renegaidcommunitysupport/

Osaka General Union

https://www.generalunion.org

https://www.facebook.com/GeneralUnion.org

John Oliver https://www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight

Michelle Obama, Becoming: https://www.amazon.co.jp/Becoming-Michelle-Obama/dp/1524763136

Connect with Catherine

Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catherine.oconnell.148

Twitter: https://twitter.com/oconnelllawyer

If you are finding that you are letting your current circumstances stagnate your legal career, then this is the episode for you. Rika Nakajima is one of the first Japanese women lawyers to hold the office of Representative Corporate Executive Officer in Japan, and as a single parent to two boys she has definitely not let her circumstances get in the way of her career and taking the leaps that have led her to where she is today.

If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we’d love it if you would leave us a message here!

In this episode you’ll hear:

About Rika

Born and raised in Japan first attending Sophia University's Comparative Cultural department in 1990 Rika then took herself over to the United States to transfer to Brown University, graduating with a bachelor of arts and honors.

In 1992 Rika then went on to take her Juris Doctorate qualification at American university, Washington College of Law in 1997 passing the New Jersey State Bar in 1998 and the New York State Bar in 2001. Rika has had over 20 years experience, having worked in prominent law firms and companies across Japan and the US. Her first law role as a qualified attorney was Ernst & Young, both in New York and in Tokyo as a tax manager. She then transitioned to tax associate at Baker McKenzie and then moved to become the Legal and Compliance Manager at Macquarie Group in 2008.  Rika joined Shearman and Sterling, LLP as an associate in March 2012, After Shearman, Rika took on the role of Senior Manager at PWC and the office of General Counsel from October 2014, right through to December 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic Rika changed jobs being hired at Oracle, Japan as the associate general counsel and in fast succession, in July 2021 Rika took up the role of corporate executive officer followed by a second promotion to representative corporate executive officer in August 2021.

Connect with Rika

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rikanakajima/

Links

Bubby’s Restaurant 

Happiness Becomes You, by Tina Turner 

Nitori CEO's book: 運は創るもの ―私の履歴書

Connect with Catherine

Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/

It’s the Lawyer on Air “Bonenkai” (End of Year) Episode. Grab a glass of your favourite beverage and join Catherine and Jayne as they help you see out 2021, and welcome in 2022 with this bumper bonus episode. Make sure you listen to the end, ...we have some bloopers for you too ... because we like to keep it real! You’ll need a pen and paper to write down all the great tips we have compiled for your legal career and living your most authentic life in 2022.

If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we’d love it if you would leave us a message here!

In this episode you’ll hear:

About Catherine

Catherine hails from New Zealand and is founder and principal of her own boutique law firm in Tokyo. She provides flexible legal services to law firms, legal departments and businesses, on a project and needs-specific basis. This is a pioneering unique legal solutions model in Japan. Her areas of focus include: foreign lawyer support for Japanese and international law firms in Japan, determining how, when and where a full-time, in-country legal counsel might best contribute to an in-house legal department; setting up systems and workflows, localising global templates, introducing general commercial contract governance to business, she combines her bilingual capability and deep in-house counsel experience, to act as the lead on all the in-person and written contract negotiations for client’s “business as usual” and project work. Catherine also does Professional Mentorship coaching lawyers 1:1 and in Masterminds (by invitation or referral), supporting CEOs with risk and legal training, and coaching in-house legal staff and law firm associates through her Associates Accelerator Academy.  Catherine is a multiple award winner in entrepreneurship, excellence and being a trailblazer.

Links

Careless Whisper by George Michael: https://youtu.be/izGwDsrQ1eQ

Catherine’s Mastermind: https://www.catherineoconnelllaw.com/catherines-lawyer-extraordinaire-mastermind-2022-waiting-list/

Connect with Catherine

Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catherine.oconnell.148

Twitter: https://twitter.com/oconnelllawyer

Connect with Jayne:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaynenakata/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/transformationswithjayne/

Website: https://www.jaynenakata.com/

If you have wondered how to make use of more legal tech for the benefit of the people and the organisation you work for, my guest Angela Yuen opens a door for us into the world of one of the biggest energy companies in Japan. Angela, a powerhouse herself, is a tireless supporter of women in law and championing young professionals to be the best they can be.

If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we’d love it if you would leave us a message here!

In this episode you’ll hear:

About Angela

Angela Yuen is Deputy General Counsel of JERA Co., Inc., the largest power generation company in Japan and one of the largest power producers in the world. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Angela studied and trained in Australia before qualifying as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia in 2000. She moved to Japan out of a sense of adventure and professional curiosity, which took her to the legal departments of two major Japanese trading companies, Sojitz Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation. Her career then led her to a global gold mining major headquartered in Melbourne and a brief stint in Seoul before returning to Tokyo in 2015 and joining Allen & Overy. Angela oversees JERA’s Legal Group which advises the Board of Directors and leadership team and provides strategic legal support to JERA’s domestic and international businesses spanning the entire energy value chain. She is passionate about supporting bold young professional females to maximize their leadership potential and attain their highest professional goals. She has 3 young children and believes that women can have it all – a fulfilling career and a healthy family.

Connect with Angela

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hoyanyuen

Links

Star of Greece: https://starofgreece.com.au/

The Truths We Hold, Kamala Harris: https://www.amazon.co.jp/TRUTHS-WE-HOLD-KAMALA-HARRIS/dp/0525560718

Connect with Catherine

Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catherine.oconnell.148

Twitter: https://twitter.com/oconnelllawyer

Jessika Colthurst did not start out her university career thinking she would be a lawyer, in fact she was studying accounting and psychology when an introduction to law lecturer piqued her interest. That was a catalyst for a series of decisions which has led Jessika to become an M&A rising star here in Tokyo. If you are feeling behind in your law studies or career or out of alignment with what you are doing, then this episode is for you.

In this episode you’ll hear:

About Jessika

Jessika is Japanese-Australian-American and has spent formative years in all three countries. She was born in Australia to American and Japanese parents, lived in Texas for over 5 years, Japan for the next 4, and then Australia again where she finished her schooling and attended university.

Jessika began her legal career at a national law firm in Australia. Through great luck and good timing, she was given the opportunity be seconded from the firm to the legal department of a trading house in Tokyo.  Jessika had always wanted to return to Japan at some point as an adult and test what she could do with her career in Tokyo.  She never expected an opportunity to arise this early in her career (at least without more effort and intentional planning) so she jumped at the opportunity.  Jessika was on secondment for nearly 2.5 years and loved her Tokyo life.  She was joined 6 months after she arrived by her then-boyfriend who is now her husband.  They both love living and working in Tokyo and have made many great friends over the years, so as her secondment was coming to an end, they felt they weren't ready to leave.  Jessika looked for opportunities to join a law firm with an office in Tokyo as she was itching to get back into private practice.  A good friend (and now colleague) introduced her to a Partner heading up  Ashurst's Japan Corporate Transactions practice.  Jessika knew immediately that she could learn so much from the Partner, and since then, has been really inspired by her passion and drive. Jessika joined Ashurst in September 2019 and has been beavering away in their busy Japan Corporate Transactions practice ever since.

Connect with Jessika

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessika-colthurst-1971a264/

Links

Foundation by Isaac Imanov https://www.amazon.co.jp/Foundation-Isaac-Asimov/dp/0553293354

Curb your enthusiasm: https://www.hbo.com/curb-your-enthusiasm

Connect with Catherine

Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair