[Press Release] Atsumi & Sakai Announces Establishment of Ho Chi Minh Office

Atsumi & Sakai Announces Establishment of Ho Chi Minh Office

Atsumi & Sakai¹ is pleased to announce the establishment of our new office in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. The Ho Chi Minh office will help us expand our market-leading legal services in Southeast Asia.

Office Name: Atsumi & Sakai Vietnam Law Firm

Address: Bitexco Financial Tower, 2 Hai Trieu Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Telephone: +84-(0)28-6287-6177

Lawyers: Mr. Katsunori Irie (Representative of Ho Chi Minh office, admitted in Japan (Tokyo Bar Association), registered foreign lawyer in Vietnam)

Ms. Thi Ngoc Anh Mai (admitted in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; not registered as a foreign lawyer in Japan)

Mr. Taisuke Oikawa (admitted in Japan (Daiichi Tokyo Bar Association), registered foreign lawyer in Vietnam)

Practices: Cross-border M&A, legal due diligence, incorporation of local entities, license support, law research for conducting business, various contracts, corporate governance, labor, overseas infrastructure, project finance, intellectual property rights, dispute resolution procedures (litigation, arbitration), etc.

Since 2011, we have operated an alliance with and continuously seconded Japanese lawyers to A-PAC INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM (APAC), a law firm in Hanoi with experience in negotiations with Vietnamese government authorities. Through this alliance, we have built up experience of the business environment in Vietnam and been retained by and provided legal services to a large number of clients, mainly Japanese companies that have entered or are considering entering the Vietnamese market.

Our Ho Chi Minh office will be our first in Southeast Asia and our fifth overseas, following New York, London, Frankfurt and Brussels². It will provide our clients with timely assistance for their business expansion in Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia and with international projects.

The strength of our Ho Chi Minh office will be to provide timely advice in line with current legal practices through our Japanese lawyers well versed in legal affairs in Vietnam and Southeast Asia and local practices, and a Vietnamese lawyer* experienced in general corporate legal affairs and M&A in Vietnam. We are committed to providing efficient and cost-effective legal services, both outbound and inbound, not only to our clients in Japan but also those in Vietnam, Asia, and the rest of the world.

*Our Vietnamese lawyer does not provide legal advice on Vietnamese law in Japan as she is not registered as a registered foreign lawyer in Japan.

On the opening of the office, it will have two Japanese lawyers and one Vietnamese lawyer, but by utilizing our other offices and our global networks, we will be able to handle large-scale cases both ourselves and in cooperation with law firms in Vietnam and other locations in Asia and globally. We also intend to expand our team in light of our clients’ future needs³.

1 Atsumi & Sakai, located in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, employs 248 lawyers as of July 9, 2024. The firm includes professionals at our Tokyo office and affiliate offices, and firms within the group, excluding A-PAC INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM and SA Partners). Atsumi & Sakai was established in 1994, and thereafter became the first completely independent Japanese law firm to form a foreign law joint venture. We have since been providing international legal services to create client value while meeting global needs. In recent years, the firm has been continuously recognized in the rankings and awards of global legal journals. (Chambers Global “International & Cross-border Capabilities” 2019-2024, Asian Legal Business (ALB) Asia Top Innovative Law Firms (one of 15 law firms in Asia Top Innovative Law Firms 2023), ALB Japan Law Awards “ESG and Sustainability Law Firm of the Year” 2023, etc. The percentage of women among partners and management committee members is around 30%, respectively. Recipient of the first “Family Friendly Award” by the Daini Tokyo Bar Association, Division for the Promotion of Gender Equality, and the “ALB Japan Law Awards 2017 “Woman Lawyer of the Year.” Selected as the Employer of Choice (the best law firm where attorneys and staff wish to work) nine times in the past, more than any other law firm in Japan, an award granted by the Asian Legal Business since 2008 on the basis of surveys of law firm employees in various countries.)
2 New York Affiliate Office (Office name: Atsumi & Sakai NY LLP / Address: 1120 Avenue of the Americas, 4th Floor New York, New York 10036 / Tel: +1-212-523-0533 / E-mail: info_ny@aplaw.jp), London Office (Office name: Atsumi & Sakai Europe Limited / Address: 85 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7NQ, United Kingdom / Tel: +44-(0)203-696-6540 / E-mail: info_uk@aplaw.jp), Frankfurt Affiliate Office (Office name: Atsumi & Sakai Europa GmbH - Rechtsanwälte und Steuerberater (A corporation registered in Germany providing legal and tax advisory services / Address: OpernTurm (13th Floor) Bockenheimer Landstraße 2–4, 60306 Frankfurt am Main, Germany / Tel: +49-(0)69-7474-5050 (General) / E-mail: (info_frankfurt@aplaw.jp) , Brussels Office (Office name: Atsumi & Sakai Brussels EU / Address: CBR Building, Chaussée de la Hulpe 185, 1170, Brussels, Belgium / Tel: +32-470-85-19-07 / E-mail: info_brussels@aplaw.jp)
3 The firm's slogan is, “A Compass to Find Your Way”

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