Mr. Hiroo Atsumi

Hiroo Atsumi is the founding partner of Atsumi & Sakai, a multi-award-winning full service independent Tokyo law firm. He has extensive experience in banking, capital markets and structured/asset finance, and has represented most major Japanese financial institutions, and many major international investment banks, on high value and complex banking and finance transactions.  Mr. Atsumi has been frequently recognised by legal and financial commentators as one of Japan’s leading finance lawyers.  He has won various awards in the area of banking, securitisation and structured finance.

Under Mr. Atsumi’s leadership, the firm has built a reputation for innovative and strategic thinking, including structuring and advising on:
- one of the first whole business securitizations in Japan;
- the largest CLO transaction in Japanese history;
- the first RMBS in Japan; and
- the first limited recourse loan for a major real estate acquisition.

Established in 1994 with five lawyers, Atsumi & Sakai now has around 100 lawyers and 60 support staff, paralegals and translators, ranking the firm among the top ten largest independent Japanese law firms. The firm has doubled in size in the last five years and this phenomenal growth has led to the development of a comprehensive range of legal expertise, including in the areas of finance, capital markets, corporate law, M&A, private equity, real estate, dispute resolution, antitrust, insurance and insolvency.

Atsumi & Sakai is one of Japan's most respected law firms in the field of securitization and has been closely involved in a number of groundbreaking transactions.  The firm has worked on securitizations of, inter alia, leases, credit card receivables, loan receivables, real estate backed receivables, future cash flows and intellectual property.

The firm's general finance practice includes loans, syndicated loans, swaps, options and other derivatives, the financing of ships, aircraft and real estate, project finance, bank regulatory advice and the structuring of new financial products.  In the area of trust banking, the firm advises on Japan's trust business law and assists clients with the creation of new trust products and structures.

The capital markets practice includes initial public offerings, equity financing, domestic bonds, samurai bonds, Euro-yen bonds, private placements, medium term notes, trading and compliance issues, and foreign stock market listings.

In April 2005, Atsumi & Sakai became the first Japanese law firm to create a foreign law joint venture (gaikokuhou kyoudou jigyo).  This allows the firm to admit experienced foreign lawyers as partners, thus creating a unique combination of international expertise and capabilities, as well as an extensive Japanese law practice.  The firm not only advises on the laws of Japan but through its foreign lawyers, also advises on the laws of New York, California, Ohio, Germany, the Peoples Republic of China and Queensland (Australia), as well as the Federal laws of the United States and Australia.  Atsumi & Sakai has a significant cross-border practice, including cross-border transactions as well as cross-border litigation.