[Office Information Session Report ①]
Building a firm that excels in litigation — What Mimura Komatsu Law Office values

Mimura Komatsu Law Office was established in 2019 by attorneys Ryoichi Mimura and Shunya Komatsu.
Initially, the firm started as a small one with five lawyers, but expanded its business, focusing on intellectual property, dispute resolution, and corporate law, and as of February 2026, has grown to a team of 24 lawyers.

On November 20, 2025, Mimura Komatsu Law Office held its first office information session, which was attended in person and online by approximately 30 lawyers, legal trainees, and law school students.
A lively exchange of opinions took place through a program that included an introduction to the firm's history and areas of practice, a panel discussion, a question-and-answer session, and a social gathering.

In this article, based on the content discussed at the briefing,
"Why did Mimura Komatsu Law Firm take on this form?"
What philosophy did you use to develop your office?
We will be reporting on this issue, focusing on the words of lawyer Hayato Komatsu.

What kind of litigation do you really want to do? ──The limitations of working at a large firm and the decision to go independent

Attorney Ryoichi Mimura, who co-founded Mimura Komatsu Law Office with me, and I were originally part of the litigation team at the same large law firm.
There, I was surrounded by talented people and was able to be involved in many large-scale disputes involving well-known companies, as well as cases with significant social impact, and I was able to gain a wealth of experience in this favorable environment.

However, as the number of consultations from people close to me increased, I began to see a different reality: "We cannot handle many dispute cases in this environment." This is because large firms already have many corporate clients, and it is difficult to take on new consultations in which existing clients are the counterparty in contracts or disputes, as these cases pose a conflict of interest due to legal ethics.
In particular, in the areas we want to focus on, such as large-scale inter-company litigation, patent litigation, and clients such as creators, artists, and startups, the parties to disputes and contracts often overlapped with the firm's existing clients.
Even though I was confident that I could contribute to this case, I continued to be unable to take on the case as a lawyer due to conflicts of interest, which created difficult issues for me both in terms of my own growth and how I interacted with clients.

Around that time, I had more opportunities to talk with Attorney Mimura, a former judge with whom I had previously exchanged opinions on such matters as how to prepare for and forecast litigation, the key points of contract negotiations, and adjusting the wording of contracts.
As a judge, Attorney Mimura has handled litigation and intellectual property cases for many years, and has left behind many famous rulings. This valuable experience allows him to foresee the key points when a dispute case goes to court, such as "If this case goes to court, this piece of evidence will be the key," or "If this case goes to court, the interpretation of the wording in this contract will be the deciding factor."
I have always felt that a judge's perspective serves as a compass for a lawyer, and through these repeated conversations, I began to think that working with Attorney Mimura might help me achieve my goal of providing efficient advice for conflict resolution.

From then on, Attorney Mimura and I began to discuss in more detail the future of our law firm, and eventually we came to realize that we both had the same sense of the challenges we faced, and we naturally shared the goal of "creating an office that is strong in litigation and disputes, in an environment where we can freely accept requests."

The idea of ​​specialization in each industry sector: Issues in Japanese legal practice that I became aware of while studying abroad

Another thing I was very conscious of when starting up my new firm was that it should be a law firm that specializes in the "industry field" rather than the "legal field."

Traditionally, in the Japanese legal industry, particularly in the field of corporate law, it was common for legal fields to have vertically divided specializations, such as "specialists in corporate law," "specialists in labor law," "specialists in intellectual property law," "specialists in personal information protection law," and "specialists in bankruptcy law."
Of course, these divisions are important for enhancing specialization, but actual corporate activities cannot be covered by a single legal field. Every industry involves a complex intertwining of various legal fields, such as company formation (Companies Act), stock issuance (Companies Act), fundraising (Financial Instruments and Exchange Act), trademark registration (Intellectual Property Act), employee employment (Labor Act), counterfeiting measures (Intellectual Property Act), patent acquisition (Intellectual Property Act), advertising regulations (Antimonopoly Act), handling of personal information (Personal Information Protection Act), crisis management (Criminal Law), and company liquidation (Bankruptcy Law).

While studying in the United States, I met lawyers who provided cross-sectional advice across legal fields such as "fashion law," "art law," and "entertainment law," with a thorough understanding of the customs of specific industries and the relationships between the players. Furthermore, at Fordham Law School in New York, where I studied abroad, a wide range of classes were offered for each industry, just as there were classes in the legal field.
I saw lawyers who, after gaining a thorough understanding of the structure, culture, business practices, and terminology of a particular industry, were able to provide the advice their clients were looking for from a business perspective, not just the law, and I felt that this was the ideal lawyer that clients were looking for. In particular, I felt that there were very few lawyers in Japan who could provide advice based on business acumen, not just legal issues, and that there was a high demand for them.

Due to this background, Mimura Komatsu Law Office currently has several lawyers with in-depth knowledge of various industrial sectors, including the entertainment and content industry, fashion industry, jewelry industry, art industry, design industry, healthcare industry, logistics industry, and education industry.

Incorporating the knowledge of former judges to improve the quality of dispute resolution

Another feature of Mimura Komatsu Law Office is that we have several former judges on staff, and we have a system in place that allows us to reflect their knowledge in our work on a daily basis.

As of February 2026, Mimura Komatsu Law Office has four lawyers who are former judges. In particular, it is rare in Japan for an office to have multiple former judges who have experience in the intellectual property and labor departments, and this is something I have placed importance on since the office was founded.

Each judge has different priorities and ways of formulating judgments, so being able to discuss with multiple former judges is an element that can dramatically improve the quality of litigation and dispute resolution.
By adding the perspective of a former judge,

・You can grasp the outlook for lawsuits and disputes early on
・Able to accurately organize the issues
・Improved accuracy of claims and evidence
・Even during the negotiation stage, decisions can be made based on the "court's thinking."

This has resulted in practical benefits such as the above, which are a major advantage for the firm.
If you are a lawyer with litigation experience, you can imagine how advantageous it is to be able to prepare by obtaining the judge's opinion (and multiple judges' opinions) in advance.

This environment also provides a great learning opportunity for young lawyers. In daily discussions, they can naturally incorporate the perspective of "how would a judge think?", which helps them develop the ability to understand the logic of decisions at an early stage.

The ideal lawyer and firm that Mimura and Komatsu Law Office aspires to be

At Mimura Komatsu Law Office, we place importance on training lawyers who have both solid litigation skills and an understanding of the actual state of the industry.
Corporate issues often cannot be resolved through a single legal field, and require the ability to provide appropriate advice and devise strategies while addressing the structure and business practices of each industry. For this reason, we place importance on steady accumulation, such as acquiring the basics of practice while being exposed to a wide range of cases and honing our ability to formulate judgments through repeated discussions.
Working with a diverse team, including former judges, is a great help in enhancing this ability. We want to be a place where lawyers who are sincere in their work, who are close to the industry, and who can boldly accompany companies in their challenges can be nurtured.

Mimura Komatsu Law Office is currently recruiting lawyers to work with us. We welcome applications and inquiries from lawyers who are interested in corporate law, litigation, and dispute resolution in a variety of industrial fields.

In the next report, we will report on the panel discussion between attorneys Shinnosuke Nitta, Kotaro Tanabe, and Masashi Miyazawa. We will introduce specific details about how they joined Mimura Komatsu Law Firm and the type of work they are currently doing.

【2026.2.10】