Practical Experience Spanning the Judiciary, Finance, and Business Management

Beyond legal practice, I have built multifaceted practical experience spanning investment banking, investment fund management, and the front lines of startup management. My experience across the distinct fields of law, finance, and management is now an essential foundation of my practice, enabling me to provide effective support that goes beyond mere legal advice and reflects the structure of the business itself and the essence of decision-making.

I passed the former National Bar Examination while studying at the Faculty of Law of the University of Tokyo, and after completing my legal training, I began my legal career as a judge. In judicial practice, I handled a wide variety of cases, including criminal and family matters, and gained experience in identifying the essence of disputes while sorting through conflicting interests and complex facts. Court practice requires not merely the formal application of statutes, but the ability to analyze the parties' arguments, the evidence, and the background circumstances comprehensively and to grasp the case as a whole in a structured way. The fact-finding skills, the ability to organize issues, and the habit of analyzing problems from multiple perspectives that I developed through this experience remain an important foundation of my practice today.

I subsequently obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the Faculty of Laws, University College London, under the National Personnel Authority's long-term overseas research program for government officials. Through legal research in the United Kingdom and exposure to international legal practice, I learned to view different legal systems and values from a comparative law perspective, and came to strongly recognize how important breadth of vision and flexibility are for legal professionals in an increasingly globalized society.

After returning to Japan, I practiced as an attorney in corporate law, corporate litigation, and dispute resolution, helping to resolve legal issues arising in business activities. At the same time, as my experience grew, I came to realize keenly that in corporate management there are many situations in which the conclusion that something is “legally correct” is not, by itself, sufficient as a business decision. What corporate management requires is not only legal certainty, but comprehensive and realistic decision-making that takes into account relationships with the capital markets, business growth potential, financial condition, organizational management, investor relations, and even future capital policy and exit strategies.

With this awareness, I went beyond the boundaries of legal practice and joined the Investment Banking Division of Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co., Ltd., where I worked on M&A, fundraising, corporate valuation, and other investment banking matters. I then joined a foreign investment fund, where I was involved in analyzing portfolio companies, evaluating businesses, and making investment decisions, gaining a deeper understanding of the logic of the capital markets and the practice of business management.

Since 2021, I have served as Chief Financial Officer at several startup companies, working on IPO preparation, equity and debt fundraising, capital policy planning, the development of internal control systems, and investor relations. Through advisory work for management teams, I am also closely involved in supporting decisions on business strategy and growth.

In startup management, a business cannot move forward by pursuing legal correctness alone. Decisions must be made while keeping many factors in view at once, including the company's growth potential, cash flow, shareholder composition, relationships with business partners, organizational management, recruitment, market conditions, social credibility, and exit strategies such as a future M&A or stock market listing. For this reason, in my practice I place great importance not only on whether something is legally sound, but also on whether it is sustainable and whether it makes sense as a business decision.

Legal Services That Support Management Decisions

What I value most in the legal services I provide is not handling individual legal issues for their own sake, but supporting decision-making as a whole, based on the business environment and strategy in which the client operates. Problems that arise in corporate management are not confined to legal matters; they are interconnected with many other factors, including financial condition, capital policy, organizational structure, market conditions, investor relations, and future growth strategies. I therefore believe that comprehensive analysis incorporating not only legal but also management and financial perspectives is indispensable in practice.

The challenges companies face are wide-ranging, including contract negotiations, dispute resolution, labor issues, building compliance systems, fundraising, M&A, corporate governance, shareholder relations, and launching new businesses. These are not isolated issues, however; they are always closely tied to corporate value and business strategy. It is therefore important not to judge a single legal risk in isolation, but to develop solutions that can actually work, with the impact on the company as a whole in view.

In particular, when executives must make decisions in highly uncertain circumstances, asking only whether something is legally safe does not lead to a sufficient judgment. In business, eliminating every risk is not realistic, and excessive risk avoidance may cost a company its very opportunities for growth. What matters, therefore, is not to fear risk in the abstract, but to analyze its nature, likelihood, and impact on the business accurately, and to distinguish properly between risks worth taking and risks that should be avoided.

For example, an option that minimizes legal risk in the short term may undermine business growth and market competitiveness in the medium to long term. Conversely, a decision that involves a certain degree of risk can, in many cases, enhance corporate value if it is backed by appropriate controls and the ability to explain it. For this reason, rather than merely pointing out risks to clients, I focus on supporting realistic and sustainable decision-making, including what preconditions must be in place for a course of action to be feasible, what management systems should be built, and how accountability should be fulfilled.

In recent years, society's expectations regarding corporate governance and accountability have grown even stronger, and great importance is placed not only on management decisions themselves, but also on the process by which they are made. In practice, therefore, advice must take into account not only legal soundness but also whether the decision can be explained to shareholders, financial institutions, business partners, employees, and other stakeholders.

I believe that legal services are not merely a means of sorting out legal issues after problems arise, but a foundation that supports the decision-making of companies as they pursue sustainable growth. Accordingly, in my relationships with clients, I aim to be not simply an outside professional, but someone who stands alongside management in their decisions and works with them to find the best solution in complex situations.

In an era of accelerating change and growing uncertainty, merely presenting a formally correct answer cannot be truly valuable advice. Reaching the most rational and effective solution for the client, grounded in the essence of the business, the intentions of management, the logic of the capital markets, and the impact on society: that is the kind of legal service I strive for, and the value I consistently pursue in my practice.

The Attorney Kazunori Nakamura Aspires to Be

I believe that law does not exist merely to restrict corporate and social activities, but serves as a foundation that supports more rational and sustainable decision-making in an increasingly complex society. Merely pointing out legal risks does not allow companies or society to move forward. What matters, in my view, is to build options that actually work, grounded in the purpose of the law and the demands of society, and to help clients make sound decisions even in highly uncertain environments.

Drawing on the perspective I have developed through experience across the distinct practical fields of the judiciary, finance, and business management, I will continue to provide sophisticated and practical legal services that contribute to the sustainable growth of companies and society.