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| Local firm Atsumi & Partners recently announced the nation’s first internal promotion to partnership from within a domestic firm of a foreign practitioner. John Shanahan, a lawyer admitted in Ohio, USA and fluent in Japanese, was elected to partnership in the firm’s corporate division as of the new year. Although common for foreign attorneys to occupy the position of partner in international firms in Japan, Shanahan is the first internal promotion of a foreign attorney within a domestic firm.
Colleague and fellow partner Bonnie Dixon commented on Shanahan’s election, “This is a significant development in the Tokyo legal market as this event demonstrates the existence of a new career track in Tokyo for non-Japanese lawyers, one that is long term and which offers the potential for significant economic gain.” She also noted that the Japanese legal market “has come a long way from the days when the only career option for non-Japanese attorneys was a two year contract, sometimes renewable, checking the English in contracts and memoranda.” |
