We plan to provide our services worldwide and gain renown as Asia's leading M&A and dispute resolution law firm: Tetsuo Kurita of One Asia Lawyers Group

“As the Managing Partner, I look forward to expanding our team in Japan and Singapore to over 100 lawyers in the next 10 years.”

One Asia Lawyers Group is a network of independent law firms created expressly to provide seamless, comprehensive legal advice for Japanese clients. Moreover, it provides various services globally, especially in ASEAN and South Asia regions, for the establishment of companies, M&A transactions, dispute resolution, compliance and fraud investigation, infrastructure export, SDGs/ESG, finance, employment law, PDPA, intellectual property rights, cryptocurrency and ICO support and so on.

The firm’s Global Whistle-Blowing System helps clients globally from a single window.

The Silicon Review reached out to Tetsuo Kurita, Managing Partner at One Asia Lawyers Group, and here’s what he had to say.

Interview Highlights

Q. How is the industry you serve currently evolving? Where does One Asia Lawyers Group stand at the moment relative to other participants in the industry?

Our industry is changing as a result of globalization. Almost no transaction can be completed within one country or jurisdiction. For example, IT and Fin-Tech companies sell their products in multiple countries. Therefore, law firms need to be increasingly globally integrated. To address this, we established several footprints across countries and jurisdictions, and work to offer a single platform for companies operating across Asia.

Q. What groundbreaking and proactive methodology does One Asia Lawyers implement to ensure clients receive a high level of service quality?

What makes us unique is our diverse connections worldwide as we have offices and member firms in 17 countries. This supports our clients' endeavors to expand in the Asian market by focusing on superb advice from member firms and our specialists, quickly delivered at affordable fees.

Q. What new endeavors is One Asia Lawyers currently undertaking?

We are expanding our network and will open our new office in Dubai. We also established new departments for SDGs/ESG in Asia and web3.

Q. Can you provide us with one or two success stories describing the challenges your clients faced and how One Asia Lawyers helped them overcome those challenges?

We help with both transactional matters and dispute resolution. One of our Japanese customers recently bought a Malaysian company operating in Saudi Arabia. We helped them with their M&A process, such as due diligence, drafting Share Purchase Agreement and Shareholders Agreement. The transaction was successfully completed.

Just after the transaction, our customer found that the main client in Saudi Arabia terminated their contract with the acquired Malaysian company. We immediately acted for our Japanese customer to demand compensation for any losses and initiate arbitration based on breach of representations and warranties. We again successfully won the arbitration and claimed the damage back.

Our customer is very happy as we helped them with transaction and dispute resolution.

Q. How do you see One Asia Lawyers changing in five years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?

As the Managing Partner, I look forward to expanding One Asia Lawyers’ team in Japan and Singapore to over 100 lawyers in the next 10 years. Moreover, One Asia Lawyers is already marking its footprints across Asia. Last year, the law firm opened its fourth branch in Japan, Kyoto, and this year, it plans to open a new group firm in Dubai. One Asia Lawyers plans to become a truly international firm for businesses in Japan and beyond and be recognized as the top law firm in dispute resolution and M&A across Asia.

Q. Is there anything you would like to add before we wrap up?

One Asia Lawyers Group, Singapore office (Focus Law Asia LLC) has received various legal awards, such as ‘Firm to Watch’ on Dispute Resolution (Local Firms) in 2023, ‘Firm to Watch’ on Shipping (Local Firms) in 2023, and ‘One of Asia’s Fastest-Growing Firms 2022’ by Asian Legal Business. It was also listed as one of the ‘Top 10 Employment Law Firms in APAC 2023’ by APAC.

Tetsuo Kurita | Managing Partner

After seven years at the Mori Hamada & Matsumoto Law Firm in Japan, Tetsuo Kurita furthered his studies overseas in Switzerland and the USA and went on to be a partner in one of Singapore’s top law firms, Rajah & Tann. He then became the head of Asian operations for Baker & McKenzie. Now based in Singapore, Tetsuo specializes in all cross-border legal transactions, including M&A and trade disputes. In 2014, he became the first Japanese-qualified lawyer to pass the Foreign Practitioner Examination in Singapore.

Tetsuo is also the first Japanese lawyer to be a case managing officer at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, dealing with many cross-border issues. He teaches investment law at Hitotsubashi National University in Japan since 2017.

“We are expanding our network and will open our new office in Dubai. We also established new departments for SDGs/ESG in Asia and web3.”