Though a number of international firms have faced difficulty breaking into local practice in Japan, Bingham McCutchen has had the opposite problem. It’s regarded as too local.
The Boston-based firm entered the Japanese market in 2007 through a merger with the firm of top insolvency lawyer Hideyuki Sakai. The firm now has a relatively large 81-lawyer Tokyo office, but most of its professionals are Japanese-qualified lawyers, or bengoshi. As a result, it’s rarely thought of as one of the top international firms in Japan; instead, it’s long been seen as more of a domestic practice, and a niche one at that.
