Ropes' rising ambitions

A US judge’s order for a substantial number of documents to be filed within seven days forced five lawyers to fly halfway across the world to Tokyo, then move on to Osaka and three other locations in the MediaTek v. Sanyo Electric Co. intellectual property litigation suit was the impetus for Ropes & Gray to open an office in Tokyo.
The IP litigation and private equity powerhouse only has five offices, all in the US. Now the Boston-based law firm is going to Asia to better service its clients and meet the strong demand for its services from Japanese clients litigating in the US – as was the above case – and private equity clients doing transactions in the region.
“Being in the same time zone and being on the ground is a big benefit,” says Howard Glazer, a partner at Ropes & Gray in Boston. “[The Tokyo office] is a place for us to start to seriously look at the broader Asian market. We
have no set plans on further expansion, but it’s fair for us to say we’re looking both in Japan and other
places in Asia.”
The Tokyo office will primarily focus on IP; the firm represents some of the largest Japanese clients in IP litigation. Initially, the office will be staffed by four employees: James DeGraw, a corporate IP partner from Boston and Steven Baughman, an IP litigation partner from Washington DC, as well as two Japanese speaking IP associates, Erika Takeuchi and Kaede Toh from New York. Two other IP partners will support the new office from New York: Patricia Martone and Hiroyuki Hagiwara.
On the private equity side, Glazer says that Ropes & Gray has done a “substantial amount of work” for Bain Capital in Asia, as well as Silver Lake Partners.
The firm has mainly done transactional work for its private equity clients so far in Asia.
Among the deals the firm has advised Bain Capital on is the acquisition of payment systems provider MEI Conlux from Mars Inc. in April 2006 and its joint acquisition with Japan Industrial Partners of Sun Telephone.
Glazer says that Ropes & Gray is currently advising Bain Capital in Hong Kong on a deal that is “entirely IP driven.”
The transaction is “north of $1 billion” and spans Hong Kong, Tokyo and Boston.
The Tokyo office will be known as Ropes & Gray Gaikokuho Jimu Bengoshi Jimusho. The firm has received approval from Japan’s Ministry of Justice and is awaiting final approval from the Daini Tokyo Bar Association. Although the firm has set the official opening of its Tokyo office for early October, it has yet to find permanent office space.