US law firm Rimon has expanded its footprint in Asia with the launch of a Tokyo office, boosting its number of branches across the region to five adding to outposts in Seoul, Shenzhen, Singapore and Sydney.
The Tokyo office opening comes less than a year after the firm a Japan practice in November last year to provide cross-border legal advice to Japanese companies.
Rimon will focus on M&A, intellectual property and cross border transactions, including joint ventures, international contracts and banking, mainly because these are the firm’s strengths and match well with its existing client base in Japan, the firm told Asia Business Law Journal.
The new Tokyo office will also represent Japanese companies who are having disputes concerning international investment agreements, including free trade agreements, bilateral investment treaties, and multilateral investment agreements such as the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Asia Business Law Journal has learned.
“Providing these services to established Japanese companies and startups is our goal, as the Japanese business community and the startup community are vibrant, dynamic and underserved,” says Rimon.
U.S. litigation and IP partner Eric Kirsch, a former chief IP counsel at Nikon Corporation and an ex-prosecutor with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, is currently the only Rimon lawyer registered and based in Japan, information on the website of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations shows.
Kirsch specialises in advising international technology companies on patent infringement lawsuits, licensing matters and patent prosecution.
The Tokyo-based IP partner will be supported by a Japan practice team consisting of lawyers David Case, Michael Fogarty, Nicolas Lafont, Harold Nathan, Takashi Saito and Tomoki Tanida. Saito, Tanida and Fogarty joined Rimon last year from McDermott, Will & Emery.
Case, who also joined the firm last year, previously served as an IP partner at the Tokyo office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and White & Case. Nathan, another addition to Rimon last year, was a former partner at Schiff Hardin focusing on corporate M&A, capital markets, banking and finance who started his commercial law practice in Japan. Lafont, on the other hand, started at Rimon as a corporate M&A partner in April this year from McDermott.
Together, the Japan practice team advises Japanese companies on outbound transactional and dispute matters in the US, Europe and Latin America, as well as IP protection in the US, to the firm’s 26 July press release published on Asia Law Portal.
