David Gilmore, Managing Partner
Herbert Smith Freehills

David is the Managing Partner of Herbert Smith Freehills' Tokyo office and the head of the Dispute Resolution practice in Japan. Based in Japan since 2004, he advises Japanese and international clients on a wide variety of substantial commercial cross-border disputes, with particular experience in resolving disputes through international arbitration and litigation across Asia, Europe and the United States. His practice centres on high-value commercial disputes, particularly international arbitration, litigation and compliance advisory. He has extensive experience of advising companies on cross-border compliance issues arising from fraud and anti-corruption matters, investigations, due diligence and resulting claims. 

He also specialises in dispute resolution through international arbitration, with recent and significant experience representing clients and appearing as advocate in arbitrations under SIAC, ICC and JCAA rules.

He represents clients across a variety of industry sectors, including manufacturers, automotives, pharmaceutical, energy and natural resources, construction, heavy industries and international trade.

He is licensed to advise upon English law in Japan as a Registered Foreign Lawyer.

Elaine Wong, Partner
Herbert Smith Freehills

Elaine is a partner in our dispute resolution practice in Tokyo. Her practice centres on corporate crime and investigations, international arbitration, as well as cross-border commercial litigation. She has conducted corruption investigations on behalf of Japanese and multinational companies and advised clients on anti-bribery and corruption matters (including coordinating with various authorities and regulators), corporate governance and crisis management.

She also has significant experience representing major Japanese and multi-national companies in complex, high-value international arbitrations under the JCAA, ICC, LCIA and UNCITRAL rules and in disputes under Japanese, English, Singapore, French, Swiss, Vietnamese and UAE law. In addition to written advocacy, she offers oral advocacy capability, having had significant trial experience.

She advises clients across a range of sectors including construction, infrastructure and heavy industries, manufacturing, energy and mining.

She is fluent in English, French and Mandarin. She is licensed to advise on English law and Singapore law in Japan as a Registered Foreign Lawyer.

Chris Bailey, Partner
King & Spalding

Chris leads King & Spalding’s global disputes practice in Tokyo. A partner of the firm’s International Arbitration practice, he specializes in antitrust, special investigations, dispute resolution and all forms of alternative dispute resolution. He represents clients in cross-border disputes and regulatory matters across a range of industries, with the core of his practice in the construction, energy and resource sectors. He has practiced for over 10 years in Tokyo, including a two-year secondment with one of Japan's leading trading houses. 

James E. Hough, Partner
Morrison Foerster

James is the Head of Litigation for Morrison & Foerster LLP’s Tokyo office.  His practice centers on high-value commercial and IP disputes, and includes international arbitration and litigation in U.S. courts, as well as compliance advisory matters.  He has particular experience with cross-border compliance investigations of fraud and anti-corruption allegations, and during the past five years he has conducted more than 20 compliance investigations in Japan on behalf of international and Japanese clients.

He was selected as an “IP Star” for the 2017 edition of Managing Intellectual Property’s World IP Survey. He is recommended in the 2017 edition of The Legal 500 Asia Pacific in the areas of Intellectual Property and Dispute Resolution. He is also recommended in the 2016 edition of Intellectual Asset Management’s IAM Patent 1000.  Mr. Hough’s patent litigation experience spans a variety of technical fields, including biotechnology, semiconductors, medical devices and business methods. His copyright experience includes matters involving software, jewelry and toy designs, and rights to musical compositions.  In a high-profile case, he represented the author and publisher of the best-selling book Memoirs of a Geisha.

He is licensed as a Gaikokuho Jimu Bengoshi and is a member of the Daini Tokyo Bar Association. He admitted to the Bar of the State of New York in 1987.

Juliet Lui, Head of Professional Services, Asia Pacific
Red Flag Group

Juliet is the Head of Professional Services Asia Pacific of The Red Flag Group. She is an experienced anti-corruption and compliance lawyer who is responsible for all Professional Services engagements in the Asia Pacific region. She acts as an Advisor to clients on the US FCPA, jurisdiction-specific anti-bribery legislation, competition law, human trafficking prevention and regulatory risks.

She has assessed, designed, implemented and managed compliance programmes for global multinational corporations across a wide range of industries. She has in-depth experience and knowledge across the extractives, logistics, medical technology and IT industries. She has led challenging onsite compliance assessments and investigations onsite in emerging markets including the UAE, Mongolia, Indonesia and China. She has also been the leader of compliance reviews done in Ecuador, Israel, Korea and China. She is an experienced public speaker and has facilitated training in both English and Cantonese onsite at local client offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Japan, Korea, London, Germany and the US.

Clients appreciate her practical and business-focused advice and her ability to prioritise compliance efforts.

Mari Sonoda, Secretary-General
Personal Information Protection Commission

Mari has been Secretary-General of the Secretariat for the Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC) and its predecessor Specific Personal Information Protection Commission since 2014. Prior to taking the current responsibilities of establishing a system for protecting personal information including My Number, she was General Director in the Federation of National Public Services and Affiliated Personnel Mutual Aid Associations.

She holds a B.A. in Economics from Keio University. After graduating, she started her career at the Ministry of Finance as a financial specialist, and has been devoted to such issues as international finance, overseas investment and stock exchanges. Her international working experiences include conducting economic policy research at Washington D.C. branch of the Export-Import Bank of Japan currently called the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and arranging corporate bond issues for global investors by the Japan Highway Public Corporation.

Takayuki Kitajima, General OCunsel & Representative Director,
Unilever Japan Holdings K.K. (Japan)

Takayuki started his career as legal assistant in Japanese trading company. Nissho Iwai Corporation (currently renamed as Sojitz Corporation) in 1987. At that time, he was in charge of domestic legal issues, especially debt collection and related works. Through two overseas assignments (Germany 1991-1993, UK 1997-2001), he extended his job fields to international matters like project finance, IPP, Joint Venture and License Arrangement, asset sale & purchase, distressed debt management and etc.

After 18 years practicing in Japanese company, he decided to seek new opportunity and moved to Johnson & Johnson Japan as legal director covering medical device, cosmetic products and consumer products. In November 2006, he joined Unilever Japan group as General Counsel for Japan & Korea and appointed as Representative Director of Unilever Japan Holdings K.K. Since then, he extended his jobs to brand protection and effective advertisement to the products. In the course of this work, he worked closely with business people in Japanese, US and European companies to support right and reasonable business decision and to clear and to settle several problem and issues. 

Naoki Watanabe, Deputy Chief Legal Officer
Sojitz Corporation

Naoki is the Deputy Chief Legal Officer of Sojitz Corporation.  Prior to joining Sojitz, he was a partner at Clifford Chance and K&L Gates, and acted for numerous global corporations and institutions in respect of, among others, M&A, private or public/private alliance, compliance and corporate governance. In the field of compliance, he handled various internal investigations in relation to alleged FPCA and anti-trust cases. 

He is a standing Corporate Auditor of LINE Corporation, a Court Mediator of Tokyo Summary-claim Court, and an executive Advisory Board Member of Keio Law School, Global Legal Practice Program.  He received law degrees from Keio University and Duke University. 

Aki Wakabayashi, Chair
Transparency International Japan

Aki is Chair at Transparency International Japan, advising the Japan-based multi-national companies and financial institutions on anti-bribery and anti-money laundering, as well as leading the advocacy events on corporate governance, whistleblowing protection, and enforcement of the OECD anti-bribery convention in Japan.  She has successfully urged the Japanese government and the public to ratify the UNCAC through the UN convention on corruption.  

Prior to joining Transparency International Japan, she was a journalist and has published eleven books on the governance in the public sector in Japan. She writes articles on magazines, books and made comments on newspaper, TV and radio. She participated in government waste-reducing projects in 2009 and 2010 and ran for the upper-house election in 2010.

She completed a BA in political science and law at Keio University.

Kaori Miyake, Corporate Counsel
Johnson Controls K.K.

Kaori is Corporate Counsel for Johnson Controls responsible for all legal matters related to the company’s operations in Japan. Prior to that, she was Senior Corporate Counsel for Amazon, General Counsel for Schneider Electric, Senior Counsel for GE Healthcare and Senior International Counsel for Federal Express.

She is licensed in Ontario, Canada and practiced at Cassels Brock & Blackwell in Toronto before returning to Tokyo to be an in-house counsel. Native of Tokyo, Kaori earned JD from Queen’s University, Dipl SLS from University of Ottawa, BA Law from Carlton University and Rikkyo University.

Satoshi Sato, Director, Global Compliance
Sony Mobile Communications Japan Inc.

Satoshi is currently the Director, Global Compliance with Sony Mobile Communications Japan Inc. He heads the compliance and governance area with worldwide responsibility in the organisation.

He has more than 20 years of experience in both Legal and IPR, mainly in the telecommunication industry. Prior to this post, he was part of Hikari-Tsushin Inc., and Softbank Mobile (formally known as Vodafone Japan).