Event Report

We are delighted to announce that the Legal 500’s second GC Powerlist Japan was an unqualified success, significantly improving on the 2023 edition despite our research team facing a considerable challenge: updating the list of awardees to reflect market changes and a vast number of nominated individuals while retaining a core of the most impressive leading GCs from the previous edition. In a legal market as complex and awash with talent as Japan, this was no easy task!

The launch reception, which took place in The Capitol Hotel Tokyu’s grand ballroom, provided ample evidence of the success of our research over the past months, with 90 high-level corporate counsel in attendance. As well as general counsel and CLOs from Japan’s vast shogo shosha, or general trading companies, those from large multinationals were present, along with particularly impressive legal officers from startups and other smaller but innovative enterprises. For the first time, we were also able to celebrate the achievements of a number of Rising Stars—corporate counsel who are either heading up the legal departments of smaller companies or are indispensable members of larger legal departments but who are not yet at the general counsel level.

After an opening address by Legal 500 GC Powerlist editor Joe Boswell, our GC keynote speaker took to the stage to address the audience on behalf of those successfully selected for the list. Ayako Shotoku, Group General Counsel of Panasonic Holding Corporation, congratulated her fellow in-house lawyers for being included in the GC Powerlist and spoke about the expanding role of the general counsel in a Japanese context. The respect she commands in the market was evidenced by the fact that you could have heard a pin drop while she was speaking until she received rapturous applause at the conclusion of her remarks.

The GC Powerlist: Japan 2024 could not have been such a triumph without the support of two indisputably top-notch law firms, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune and Morrison Foerster. Having two big hitters like this involved, one Japanese and one international, was essential in making this event so prestigious. Key representatives from these distinguished firms then took the stage to address the audience. Partner Dale Caldwell of Morrison Foerster spoke first, highlighting some of the great general counsel in Japan he has worked with on the big-ticket projects he regularly advises on and congratulating those who made it onto the list for their achievement.

Keiko Kaneko, partner and chairwoman of the Anderson Mori & Tomotsune management committee, spoke next, reiterating her firm’s steadfast support of the Japanese corporate counsel community during a time when their responsibilities are expanding at a rapid pace.

Our other sponsors for the event, Just Legal, SS&C Intralinks, and iManage, then came into their own during the networking session, as food and drinks were provided. A photo booth for some fun photos to remember the evening by was also kindly supplied by SS&C Intralinks and was in heavy use throughout the evening.

We at the Legal 500 are thrilled with the success of the 2024 GC Powerlist: Japan. It is a huge honour to share a room with such eminent legal luminaries, and it is a humbling experience to be able to interview them during the research process of the publication.

We are hoping to expand our events schedule in Japan, so keep an eye out for updates. We will be back in Tokyo for our GC Summit Japan, taking place on October 3rd at the Peninsula Hotel.

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