ABOUT THE JAPAN IN-HOUSE COUNSEL NETWORK
(JICN)
1. Overview
The Japan In-house Counsel Network (JICN) is an unincorporated professional association for in-house counsel working in, or having other affiliations with, Japan. It has an organizing committee who share roles to support JICN activities. It was first launched in 2005.
2. Membership
The JICN has over 140 current members as of November 2010. Membership in the JICN is free.
Membership is open to qualified lawyers working in-house and other corresponding in-house legal professionals regardless of their formal legal qualifications (i.e. those in the position to be responsible for providing legal advice to their employer organization).
The main language of communication at JICN events is English. However, members come from both multinational and domestic corporations, and membership is not limited to those with an international affiliation or background. Most members are based in Japan, and the majority in Tokyo, although we have members based in other parts of Japan and overseas.
3. Benefits of membership
The JICN offers a support and communication group for in-house legal professionals. In particular, we provide:
- Free member-only roundtable discussion sessions on topics related to in-house practice and legal topics
- Free member-only law firm-supported seminars on legal topics
- A forum for information exchange between members through ad hoc communication amongst members and in our members-only section on our website, which includes:
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- Law firm comments/recommendations
- Legal updates and information exchange
- Materials from our seminars and roundtables
- Careers and recruiting information exchange
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- Social events amongst in-house counsel and with other professional groups
- Support for professional development and learning activities for in-house counsel eg. support of and contributing to in-house conferences, contributing to legal publications, providing CLE credit for JICN events
- Links and communication with other legal professional groups, service providers (legal publishers, law firms, accounting firms, recruiters) and other stakeholders, through joint events and information sharing
If you have any ideas or suggestions for what activities you would like the Network to organise or be involved in in the future, please send them to info@jicn.jp.
Current organising committee members are Royanne Doi, Akiko Kikuchi, Arshad Karim, Chika Hirata, Hideyuki Sakamoto, William Herbert, Kevin Takeuchi, Hiroyuki Yamada, and Jacob Rosoff. Anyone who is interested in becoming involved in organising the Network or particular activities is welcome to contact any of us.
