Law Firm Kirkland to Open Tokyo Office to Catch M&A Deals Growth

Kirkland & Ellis, one of the world’s biggest corporate law firms, plans to open an office in Tokyo and is recruiting lawyers to tap the booming Japanese deals market.

Naoya Shiota and Clara Shirota will join the firm as partners, and Catherine Simes joins as counsel, Kirkland said in a statement Monday. Shiota and Simes specialize in mergers and acquisitions, while Shirota focuses on debt financing transactions.

Shiota was a partner at Morrison Foerster. He has more than two decades of experience advising private equity firms and Japanese companies on cross-border and domestic deals, including in the automotive, entertainment ...