Tokyo Office

Since the opening of its Tokyo office, COTTY VIVANT MARCHISIO & LAUZERAL has been the sole French independent law firm with offices both in France and Japan and thus capable of dealing with matters requiring significant knowledge of the Japanese legal system.

The Tokyo office was opened in September 2006 following a merger with the practice of Laurent Dubois who has been registered with the Tokyo Bar as a foreign lawyer (Gaikokuhô Jimu Bengoshi) since 1988. A partner at Cotty Vivant Marchisio & Lauzeral, Laurent Dubois was the founder of the Laurent Dubois Foreign Law Office (1999-2006), and was in charge of the Tokyo desk of Gide Loyrette Nouel in Tokyo in cooperation with TMI Associates from 1988 until 1999.

The Japanese desk, divided between Paris and Tokyo, is composed of two partners and 5 associates, including a Japanese lawyer (Bengoshi) who is a member of the Tokyo Bar. These members were selected for their excellence in their field of legal expertise as well as for their linguistic abilities. The Japanese desk thus offers its clients the highest level of professional standards and is able to mobilize teams at any time that are able to operate in a bi-cultural environment.

The Japanese desk is managed by Laurent Dubois in Tokyo and by Fabrice Marchisio in Paris.

The Tokyo office regularly assists its clients in the following fields:
- establishment of companies and assistance on all types of projects from a legal point of view by providing strategic counselling regarding investment structures, drafts and negotiation of contracts, and supervision of incorporation procedures;
- acquisition projects of companies, merging and restructuring projects (i.e. legal and fiscal due diligence reports, negotiation/drafting/translation of acquisition, merger, or restructuring contracts and shareholders’ agreements);
- all types of intellectual and industrial property procedures (i.e. patent, design, trademark and IP right licensing registration, copyright/know-how/software/R&D project protection, preventive action against counterfeit and counselling for all types of litigation regarding patents, designs and trademarks);
- welfare services and labour law (i.e. human resources management, collective and individual labour agreements, local and expatriate employment contracts, legal framework in restructuring processes);
- tax law regarding all areas that would concern a French company operating in Japan: taxation of commercial companies, tax aspects of acquisitions and restructurings, transfer pricing, taxation of seconded or expatriated employees, etc.