Bird & Bird intends to open an office in Tokyo, Japan, before the end of the year, appointing Hiroyuki (Hiro) Iwamura as a partner in the region.

 

The office will support Japanese clients with outbound cross-border work in Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific in key industry sectors in which the firm operates including renewable energy, life sciences, technology and media.

 

The office will focus on cross-border transactional, IP, dispute resolution and data protection work in the tech space from Japan to Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. Other areas will include digital transformation, autonomous driving and global compliance. The office will not handle in-bound transactions into Japan but will continue to work closely with Japanese partner firms in the region.

 

To open the office, Bird & Bird has appointed Hiro Iwamura as a partner. Hiro joins the firm in May from Ashurst in Tokyo where he headed their UK/European Japanese practice.