‘Reiko Sakimura has a wide variety of experience not only in law firms but also in investment banks which means the advice she gives balanced legal and business considerations. She commands English and Japanese perfectly. Matthew Ball is also a very good, hardworking and diligent lawyer.’

‘Reiko Sakimura is highly regarded as a professional for her drafting skills and her balanced advice.’

‘Matthew Ball has solid technical skills that attract Japanese issuers and underwriters.’

‘Jon Gray is my favourite US law partner for Japanese issuers’ capital markets deals and generally for anything related to US law (as he can check with his US colleagues quite quickly for me). He is very considerate, responsive and always think about us first and very knowledgeable and has a sound judgment. His Japanese language capability is excellent.’

‘Jon Gray has been leading their capital market practice in Japan for a decade and Christopher Kodama was promoted to the partnership last year, which definitely strengthened the entire team. Christopher has solid capabilities in financial disclosure and accounting matters. While Jon is for Japanese companies in traditional industries, Chris is for start-ups with new and unique business models.’

‘Chihiro Sasaki deserves his promotion to counsel. Chihiro can bridge Japanese and English disclosure rules or differences in Japanese and US securities-related laws and regulations.’

‘Takahiro Saito is very knowledgeable about our company and our services. Through his past experience, he is able to make timely and appropriate judgments and advice as to when and what kind of information is necessary.’

‘Taki Saito is an iconic lawyer and a man of the pen! He is highly reliable in his drafting skills.’

‘Takahiro Saito has been involved in many capital markets deals for a long time and has great knowledge about capital markets. David Snowden is very good too.’

‘Seiji Matsuzoe is our main contact point. He makes it easy to discuss ongoing items given his experience so there is no need to spend time sharing background details and we jump into the topic directly.’

‘Seiji Matsuzoe has been essential for us. He has a good understanding of the derivatives space and it is also notable he has a good sense of potential political risks to take in consideration.’

‘Jesse Gillespie is one of the most experienced lawyers in Japan. He and his team are adept at gathering information, and in our cases, they contributed to the issuer by pointing out how irregular a planned covenant was so that we could reach the right decision. Additionally, he is a skilled negotiator, effectively trimming unnecessary suggestions to change the language.’

‘They have a global network bridging Japan and the US/EMEA/Asia.’

‘Morrison & Foerster has deep experience in international capital markets and provided us with productive advice based on market practices and precedent deals they have executed. They are able to give well-balanced advice on what kind of information should be delivered to the market or included in due diligence questions.’

‘Kenji Taneda is the lead partner at Skadden who is responsible for their capital markets practice. Kenji is by far the best US lawyer in Japan for global capital markets matters. He provides clarity on unclear situations, shows a rational path forward and pitches in to help execute on that process. We could not have executed our IPO without the guidance of Kenji and probably no other lawyer would have been able to support our process which involved creative thinking around disclosure for a new industry. Kenji is the clear go-to lawyer for us on US law matters.’

‘Ken Kiyota is the counsel working on capital markets transactions at Skadden. While Ken is not a partner, his work and mentality resembles that of one. He is extremely knowledgeable about most capital markets issues and is ready to get in the trenches to move things along. Definitely would love to have him on our team anytime.’

‘Kenji Taneda is highly competent, responsive and very commercial. He knows the issues and gets transactions across the line and is a fair negotiator who provides commercial and practical solutions to issues.’

‘Keiji Hatano and Nirav Mehta are very knowledgeable about our company and our services. Through their past experience, they are able to make timely and appropriate judgments and advice as to when and what kind of information is necessary.’

‘Keiji Hatano is one of the smartest lawyers in the industry and a native Japanese speaker, which is good for Japanese clients.’

‘Keiji Hatano and Nirav Mehta provided speedy advice based on their precise knowledge in their field of expertise.’