Team size: Four

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

We are a relatively new team. I joined T. Rowe Price Japan in 2018 to form a local Legal team to support its expansion. At that time, the number of staff in Tokyo were about 37 and the figure now exceeds 90 which shows how much we have grown in recent years. The legal team has supported this growth; for example, T. Rowe Price entered the proprietary domestic mutual fund (“toshin”) business in 2019, and now has built a successful “toshin” business.

The legal team prepared the required documents from scratch and feel very proud to see that the business has grown. We have also won some significant pension fund mandates over the past years and have supported the onboarding of these mandates, providing ongoing legal support as necessary.

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

Japan has a low tolerance for errors, and to minimise the risk of making errors in our fund prospectuses, legal, with the support of our internal project managers, led a project and conducted an end-to end review of the prospectus documentation process. We streamlined processes and commenced using an easy-to-access platform where all information is stored so that there is less dependencies on emails; created a framework to ensure each process is on track; and ensured a clear delineation of the roles and responsibilities of relevant stakeholders.

I would not say this is innovation, but it certainly achieved the goal of reducing risk.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? 

T. Rowe Price’s ability to deliver value to our clients is rooted in our collaborative culture and the diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. Whether our external lawyers share this value is very important.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners? 

Talk to them! Communication is extremely important. Try to understand what the business partners are trying to achieve, and in this context, it is extremely important that in-house lawyers understand the business and the organisation inside out (and not just the law). Provide them with a solution where possible, but also have the courage to say no when absolutely necessary – business partners also want to understand the risks involved.