HAYNES AND BOONE JAPAN PRACTICE

Our Firm

Haynes and Boone, LLP is one of the largest and fastest growing law firms in the United States. Our teamwork culture, our willingness to change quickly to meet the demands of the marketplace and our drive to be the best have been key factors behind our success. We have grown from a handful of lawyers in 1970 to more than 450 lawyers today, with 25 specialties, ten offices and national recognition as a leader in technology to deliver legal services. Vault.com recognized the firm in 2004 as one of “20 Best Law Firms to Work For,” and since 2001, Corporate Board Member Magazine has consistently named Haynes and Boone one of the “Best Corporate Law Firms in America.” In 2004, BTI Consulting Group named Haynes and Boone as a law firm that the world’s largest investment banks and financial services firms recommend to their peers. The firm also enjoys strong relations with the current government administration. Haynes and Boone is a special law firm. We’re young. We’re growing. We’re a team.

We serve a diverse group of clients in a wide array of domestic and global business transactions and litigation matters. Our client base reflects virtually every business sector and includes more than 100 Fortune 500 companies, many major foreign corporations and large financial institutions. Among these, the representation of Japanese clients is central to our firm’s mission of leadership in international finance, trade, and dispute resolution.

In Texas, New York City, and Washington, D.C., Haynes and Boone lawyers devote a significant portion of their careers to U.S.—Japan commercial and cultural relations. The following is information about a few of those lawyers, but there are scores more who have significant experience assisting Japanese companies navigate throughout the U.S. legal world in fields such as antitrust, dispute resolution, environment, intellectual property, investment, labor, immigration, litigation, real estate, securities, tax, trade, and many others.

Our Team

Robert Wilson is the firm’s Managing Partner and a Member of its Board of Directors. He is one of the very few U.S. lawyers who have been selected to be a Principal in the U.S.—Japan Business Council. Mr. Wilson has more than 30 years of experience in business transactions. He represents investors, including major Japanese corporations, in the acquisition of significant real estate and financial assets in the United States. Mr. Wilson is a graduate of Southern Methodist University, where he was Editor–in–Chief of the Law Journal.

Edward Lebow has focused his legal career on Japan for more than 30 years. He studied Japanese language at Harvard College and wrote his undergraduate thesis under the direction of former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer on the role of law in the Japanese social sanction system. He spent several months in Tokyo living with two Japanese families and attended lectures on Japanese culture given by Takeo Doi and others. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Mr. Lebow spent six years as an attorney at the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”). While at the ITC he was responsible for legal issues involving such major Japanese exports as color televisions, steel, and automobiles. In more than 20 years of subsequent private practice he has traveled to Japan more than 50 times and continues to build his Japanese language facility. He has represented numerous Japanese companies in antidumping, Customs, patent (Section 337), and other international trade law matters. He has also had close involvement with joint ventures, investments, and other ties between U.S. and Japanese companies. He is an active member of the Japan—American Society of Washington, D.C. and Co–Chair of the Asia Pacific Committee of the American Bar Association Section of International Law.

Tim Powers is a Member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the International Practice Group of Haynes and Boone. His practice is centered around international business law with a primary emphasis on international banking and finance, international joint ventures, and foreign investment in the United States. He works closely with Japanese financial institutions in connection with their issuance of sophisticated financial instruments. He is also a principal legal advisor to the U.S. operations of a leading Japanese electronics maker, and he maintains close ties to one of Japan’s premier automotive companies. Mr. Powers serves as liaison between Haynes and Boone and a major Tokyo law firm. He is a founder and former Chair of the World Services Group, a unique multidisciplinary alliance of top law, accounting, engineering, architectural, investment, and other service providers in 110 countries. Mr. Powers is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a former President of the Japan—America Society of Dallas—Fort Worth and a former Chair of the International Section of the State Bar of Texas. He is an honors graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles and the Southern Methodist University Law School.

Ken Reisenfeld heads the firm’s International Trade and Dispute Resolution Practice Group. Mr. Reisenfeld is a former Chair of the American Bar Association’s 13,000–member Section of International Law and Practice. After graduation from Harvard Law School, he served in the Justice Department as a principal advisor to the Attorney General on international law issues, including oversight of the U.S. national security and intelligence community, development of the rules for controlling exportation of technology, and establishment of the Iran—U.S. Claims Tribunal. In his 25 years of practice, Mr. Reisenfeld has worked very closely with Japanese corporations and business associations in the automobile, semiconductor, chemical, defense, and electronics industries on large–scale trade policy, economic sanctions, export control, and Customs issues. He also represents Japanese entities in commercial and construction disputes in United States courts, and before international arbitral tribunals world–wide. Mr. Reisenfeld was formerly Chair of the ABA’s International Trade Committee and its International Arbitration Committee. He was among the ABA’s representatives in negotiations with the Nichibenren on foreign lawyer activities in Japan.

Brad Richards lived for two years in Japan, where he attended high school and taught English. His legal career has focused on corporate and financial services issues. In Houston Mr. Richards has represented several of Japan’s largest banking institutions, both on policy and transactional work. On behalf of three Japanese banks, he was instrumental in bringing about Texas’s Foreign Bank Agency Act. For more than 20 years he has handled major lending and commercial transactions for Japanese banks, steel companies, and other corporations in Texas, as well as related arbitration and dispute resolution matters. Mr. Richards enjoys close personal as well as professional ties with a number of diplomats who have served as Consuls General of Japan in Houston. He is President of the Japan—America Society of Houston and an associate member of the Japan Business Association of Houston. He is a graduate of Brown University (with honors) and the University of Iowa College of Law (with distinction) and formerly served as Chair of the International Section of the State Bar of Texas.

Don Templin heads Haynes and Boone’s Business Litigation Practice Group. He is currently defending one of Japan’s largest manufacturing companies and its principal U.S. subsidiary in a class action in a Texas state court claiming more than $20 million in damages. He has over 25 years experience as a trial lawyer in business disputes and is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates. A significant portion of his practice is devoted to handling intellectual property disputes, including patent, trademark, and copyright litigation, and he has represented U.S. subsidiaries of Japanese companies in actions involving trade secrets. He is also a senior member of the firm’s First Amendment and media defense practice. Mr. Templin is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Oklahoma Law School, where he was an Editor of the Law Review.

Akira Takahashi is an attorney qualified to practice in Japan and a member of the Dai–ni Tokyo Bar Association. He currently works as a foreign associate in the firm’s Dallas Office. Prior to joining the firm, he worked for fours years at a major law firm in Japan where his practice included finance transactions, especially the securitization of real estate and loan assets, project finance and investment trusts, insolvency cases, mergers and acquisitions, and litigation. He graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law in 1999, and obtained a Master of Law degree from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law in 2007.

Our Experience

The following are representative of the types of engagements our lawyers have undertaken on behalf of Japanese corporate clients:

Corporate and Financial
• Represented Japanese investors in over $1 billion in real estate investments in the United States.
• Represented a Japanese multi–national mining company in the drafting and negotiation of its construction, engineering, and joint venture agreements for large scale smelting operations in the United States and in foreign locations.
• Represented U.S., British, and Japanese lending group in a $50 million secured multi–currency credit facility to affiliated U.S. and foreign borrowers.
• Represented a syndicate of Japanese banks in connection with the restructuring of a real estate credit facility in the United States in the amount of $300 million.
• Advised in the formation and served as general counsel to a semiconductor manufacturing joint venture between a Japanese and a U.S. company.
• Assisted a large Japanese producer in obtaining environmental approvals and operating authority for its manufacturing plant in San Antonio, Texas.
• Represented a leading Japanese steel company in an international arbitration involving construction offshore Venezuela.

Trade, Customs and Dispute Resolution
• Defended a Japanese manufacturer of printers before the American Arbitration Association against a $40 million claim for allegedly defective products.
• Represented a significant Japanese automotive company in the establishment of its U.S. operations, including providing assistance on all related Customs and trade issues.
• Represented a leading Japanese electronic components manufacturer before local, regional, and national Customs offices to obtain favorable resolution of multiple classification and valuation disputes.
• Represented Japanese companies in settling commercial, engineering and construction disputes with respect to large–scale manufacturing operations in Indonesia, Europe, and the United States.
• Defended a Japanese manufacturer of high strength plastics in a U.S. International Trade Commission Section 337 patent infringement proceeding.
• Represented a Japanese manufacturer of electrical equipment in a series of successful antidumping review investigations of imports of large power transformers from Japan.
• Represented a Japanese gas purification company in an investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
• Counseled a Japanese manufacturer in achieving a highly desirable outcome of a U.S. Customs Service transfer pricing audit.
• Defended a Japanese manufacturer of large steel valves in an antidumping investigation before the U.S. Department of Commerce.
• Defended a Japanese manufacturer of small motors in an antidumping investigation of refrigerator defrost timers and advised with respect to establishment of manufacturing facilities in the United States.
• Defended a U.S. subsidiary of a Japanese machinery manufacturer in a Defense Criminal Investigative Service inquiry into allegations of false claims under the Buy America Act made by a “whistleblower” disgruntled former employee.

Representative Japanese Clients

Government—Related Clients
• Consulate General of Japan
• Japan External Trade Organization

Corporate and Financial Institution Clients and their Subsidiaries in the U.S
• Bank of Tokyo–Mitsubishi, Ltd.
• Hitachi, Ltd.
• Hitachi Data Systems Solutions Holding Corp.
• Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc.
• Ishida Group
• Mitsui Bussan Logistics Inc.
• Mitsumi Electronics Corporation
• Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd.
• NEC America, Inc.
• NEC Business Network Solutions, Inc.
• NEC USA, Inc.
• Nippon Cargo Airlines Co., Ltd.
• Nissan Diesel America
• Satake USA, Inc.
• Seiko Instruments Inc.
• Sumitomo Corporation
• Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd.
• Tadano America Corporation
• Toshiba Corporation
• Toshiba TEC Corporation
• Toyota Industries Corporation
• TKS (USA), Inc.
• Totoku Electric Co., Ltd.
• UFJ Bank, Ltd.