Team size: Eight

What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have been involved in over the past year?

On the banking side, we supported our business team in executing a sustainability-linked loan for the delivery of an aircraft, marking our first sustainability-linked JOLCO financing deal. The Legal team worked extensively on all aspects of deal structuring and documentation, including the integration of sustainability-linked criteria aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Additionally, the transaction we supported for a European airline company was named JOLCO Deal of the Year 2023 by Airline Economics.
In the securities sector, HSBC launched an industry-first tokenised gold offering for investors in Hong Kong, with a subsequent rollout to Japanese clients. The local legal team played a crucial role in clarifying how these digital assets are treated under Japanese regulations and in establishing the legal framework necessary to offer them to customers in Japan.

What innovations have you made to the way your legal team works in the past year?

We have globally introduced an AI-supported interface for business units to submit requests for legal support, with localization as necessary for each jurisdiction. This new system is designed to replace the conventional method of sending requests via email.
The system aims to provide a data-driven approach to determine strategy and make key decisions for team management and stakeholder/client engagement. It is expected to reduce or eliminate duplicative technology costs and direct requests to the appropriate team or resource on the first attempt. This will free up time for both legal and business teams to focus on high-value business partnering conversations.
Additionally, the system is anticipated to increase employee satisfaction by allowing lawyers to concentrate on high-value advisory work, research, and career growth. Business partner satisfaction is expected to improve through the availability of a 24/7 portal for requests, instructions, and FAQs, which eliminates wait times and reduces the need for direct legal resources. Furthermore, by streamlining operations and minimizing the need to switch between systems, the new interface is set to cut costs and mitigate risk.
Transitioning from the traditional email-based approach to this new system has been a significant undertaking, with close communication and educational sessions playing a key role in ensuring a successful implementation.

Based on your experience, what is the key to collaborating successfully with business partners?

It is crucial for lawyers to deeply understand what business partners aim to achieve and then devise solutions and advice that align with those goals. We should not assume that business partners always know what questions to ask Legal. Instead, we must proactively guide them in the right direction from a legal perspective, rather than merely responding to their queries. In-house counsels should possess a thorough understanding of industry practices, the competitive landscape, and the company’s business strategy to offer legal solutions that are well-aligned with these factors. This is how we distinguish ourselves from other counsels. Given the increasingly complex legal and regulatory landscape, I encourage my team to explore areas outside their core expertise. This approach broadens their perspectives and fosters fresh insights. It also promotes smoother collaboration among lawyers and enhances our ability to partner effectively with business colleagues on emerging industry issues.

Apart from legal matters, has the team worked on other company initiatives you would like to highlight?

I have been working actively on diversity and inclusion for sexual minorities in Japan. LGBTQ+ is the area closely related to labour law or privacy law under the Japanese regime and various legal considerations exist. There are a lot of values lawyers can add. As part of our activity, we have worked to introduce various equality benefits for sexual minorities to ensure that equal benefits are provided to all employees regardless of their LGBTQ+ status. I am also proud of HSBC hosting Out leadership Asia Summit Japan 2024.