A&O Shearman makes history with partner hire from elite Japanese firm

A&O Shearman Tokyo is set to welcome Japanese-qualified finance partner Rintaro Hirano from Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu in a market first.

The debt finance specialist joins from one of Japan’s elite Big Four law firms in what is a very unusual lateral move for the Japanese market.

Nick Wall, A&O’s regional managing partner for Japan and Korea, said the move was “the first time a finance partner has moved from a Big Four Japanese law firm to an international firm.”

He pointed to an increase in inbound M&A creating more demand for private capital expertise. “It gives us a Japanese-law leveraged finance capability that is rare among international firms in Japan,” he added.

Hirano, whose practice spans leveraged finance, project finance and M&A finance, joined Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu in 2001 and was made partner in 2016.

A&O’s Tokyo office currently has around seven partners, with most focusing on cross-border M&A, finance, projects, energy and infrastructure finance deals.