Alan Kitchin, the head of Clifford Chance‘s corporate and projects practice in its Tokyo office, has been charged by British authorities with punching his longtime lover in the face at a Scottish resort.
The Sunday Mail of Scotland reports that Kitchin, 56, denied punching Misato Yoshida in the face when the two were staying at the five-star Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland, on June 4. Kitchin was subsequently arrested and charged with assaulting Yoshida, the Mail reports, appearing before the local Perth Sheriff Court.
Kitchin, who has denied the charges, is now set to stand trial sometime in November. He will continue working at Clifford Chance in the interim.
Kitchin joined the firm in February after leaving Ashurst‘s Tokyo office, which he founded in 1990 and where he had served as the local managing partner since 2002. Kitchin is the sole Clifford Chance corporate partner in Tokyo, according to Legal Week. The firm has three other partners based there.
A spokeswoman for Clifford Chance’s Asian operations told The Am Law Daily via e-mail that the charges against Kitchin are of a personal nature, making it inappropriate for the firm to offer any comment.
This article first appeared on The Am Law Daily blog on AmericanLawyer.com.
