Team size: Three

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

We were involved in the restructuring of our entities in China, through merger by absorption, which was completed by the end of December 2022. The first half of 2023 saw us involved in a broad range of work within our region, particularly supply chain-related documentation and compliance enhancements. In addition, export controls imposed by states, such as the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, have also brought new business adjustments and potential challenges.

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

Post-Covid business is conducted within a dynamic and disruptive environment; thus, we must focus on cost and efficiency. This focus prompts a need for innovation across the business and legal is no exception; the team must keep pace with changes in the legal market as they are ideally placed as a cross functional unit to generate and execute innovative ideas across the business. New technology is significant in the ever-evolving role of our team; however, we have not lost sight of the importance of ‘human’ relationships.

We maintain an ‘open door’ approach where staff across different functions and all levels can access legal services. We appreciate the fact that our employees are the organisation’s greatest asset and the team continues to develop user-friendly techniques for them to identify commercial, legal, and data protection risks.

Can you sum up the team culture in one sentence?

Everyone matters. Our employees are important to Nikon because they are responsible for carrying out Nikon’s mission and contributing to Nikon’s DNA and philosophies.

Apart from legal matters, has the team worked on other company initiatives?

As an in-house legal team, we are ideally positioned to promote Nikon’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) goals by incorporating them into our external counsel hiring process. We believe that our knowledge of external counsel’s DEI will help us gauge their existing diversity levels and identify areas that could benefit from improvement. We have an External Counsel Engagement Policy that sets out what we expect from our external counsel in terms of ESG compliance. We prioritise acknowledging instances of exemplary performance by lawyers and ensuring that DEI is a key component of routine evaluations in our relationship with law firms. We are committed to demonstrating our recognition of the DEI endeavours undertaken by external legal counsel by broadening the spectrum of services they are involved in. This showcases our dedication to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, both internally and within our network of legal partners.