Japanese ‘big-four’ firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune can now offer EU legal advisory in its antitrust & competition practice after foreign lawyer Vassili Moussis gained certification as a gaikokuho jimu bengoshi (registered foreign lawyer).
Moussis’ certification will make Anderson Mori’s antitrust & competition practice one of the few in Japan to provide legal advice on European competition and regulatory rules and will enable the firm to target the lucrative trade between the EU and Japan – Japan is the EU’s fifth largest export market. Amendments to Japan’s Anti-Monopoly Act, which came into effect 1 January, seek to align Japanese merger control rules with those of the EU, among other regimes.
“We expect many more foreign-to-foreign transactions to be made notifiable to the Japan Fair Trade Commission,” said Moussis. “Up until now these transactions would very rarely trigger notification thresholds in Japan, but the amendments are now aligned with international practice.”
Moussis, who speaks six languages, was first introduced to the firm while on secondment with Slaughter and May in 2003 and says he saw a need for lawyers who could provide advice on European laws in Japanese after relocating to Japan last year. “I think there is a strong market response to the services I can offer here at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune because of the increased enforcement activities of the European Commission, especially in relation to cartels, coupled with the fact that there is a lack of full-time EU competition lawyers based in Japan who can speak Japanese,” said Moussis.
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