Herbert Smith Freehills is pleased to announce that the firm has bolstered its corporate practice in Tokyo with the addition of corporate partner, Damien Roberts.  

Damien has extensive experience of working in Japan and Australia, and advises Japanese corporates on their outbound investments and operations. Ranked as a Japan-based expert for Australia Corporate/M&A by Chambers Global, his expertise extends across a variety of sectors, with a particular focus on the resources and infrastructure sectors. He will work closely with Head of Corporate Tokyo, Graeme Preston and also with corporate partner, Andrew Blacoe who specialises in the energy, infrastructure and mining (EIM) sectors.  

A fluent Japanese speaker, Damien has held a Level 1 certification in the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) for over 20 years, and obtained accreditation as a consecutive/simultaneous interpreter from NAATI (National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Ltd) in Australia. Damien has practised as a Registered Foreign Lawyer (Gaikokuho Jimu Bengoshi) in Japan since 2011.

As one of the largest and most experienced teams of Registered Foreign Lawyers in Japan with a combined 50 years of experience among the partners of the Tokyo office, Damien's addition further strengthens the Firm's long-standing and top-tier offering in Tokyo. Approximately half of the Tokyo office's fee-earners are fluent in Japanese, providing Japanese clients with seamless communication on complex international matters.

The Tokyo corporate practice group consists of dedicated EIM and M&A teams. The EIM team is highly regarded with market recognition as a top-tier firm with significant experience of acting for Japanese corporates and trading houses on a wide range of acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and project development within the resources, energy and infrastructure sectors.

The M&A team provides transaction support on M&A matters across a range of industries, notably in technology, media and telecommunications (TMT), education, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, consumer and heavy industries. The team has experience of acting on investments not only into major European and Asian destinations but also into emerging markets such as, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Turkey.  The team has advised on many recent market-defining transactions including Japanese telecommunications and internet company SoftBank Corp's US$250 million investment in GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd, the largest mobile taxi booking app provider in Southeast Asia; and its US$100 million investment in Indonesian e-commerce marketplace PT Tokopedia.

Some other key clients of the Tokyo Corporate practice include: Mitsui & Co., Ltd; Marubeni Corporation; Otsuka Pharmaceutical; Lixil Corporation.; Sega Corporation; JFE Steel Corporation; Sumitomo Corporation; and Mitsubishi Corporation.

Damien commented: "With increasing international competition among businesses, there is a lot more impetus for lawyers to be novel and innovative in our advice - something that has always been a key element in Herbert Smith Freehills' legal offering. It's such an exciting time for corporate Japan and I look forward to working with the exceptional team of corporate lawyers here."

Graeme commented: "We have genuine M&A experts across all sectors on the ground in Tokyo. The strength & depth of our corporate practice demonstrates that our global platform, commitment to the Japanese market, size of team, Japanese language capability and quality of service has made us one of the elite 'go-to' firms for Japanese clients for outbound M&A."

Peter Godwin, Head of Disputes Asia and Tokyo Managing Partner, commented: "We have an extremely unique and robust offering in Japan and more generally in Asia Pacific, where we have a strong corporate capability in the region with more than 1000 lawyers across 12 offices. We launched our Tokyo office back in 2000 and have become recognised as one of the most successful foreign firms in Japan. In addition to Damien, our Tokyo office is shortly set to welcome a new group of partners and we are confident our market-leading position will not only be maintained but enhanced in the years ahead."