Akrivis Law Group, PLLC is pleased to announce the formation of a strategic relationship with Japanese trade law expert Daisuke Takahashi*. Mr. Takahashi is a Japanese qualified attorney practicing in Tokyo, and is presently serving as of counsel to Akrivis Law Group, PLLC. He will be advising the firm and its clients on Japanese trade matters. Mr. Takahashi’s practice is through Shinwa Sohgoh, a general practice firm in Tokyo, where he is a partner.  Mr. Takahashi’s practice is unique to Japan as he is one of a limited number of attorneys in that country practicing in the fields of export controls, sanctions, and anti-corruption. 

Most recently, Akrivis worked with Mr. Takahashi to help secure the removal of a mutual client from Japan’s Ministry of Economics, Trade, and Industry (METI) from that agency’s End-User list, believed to be the first case where counsel has secured the removal of a company from that list. This same client was on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Entity List, from which Akrivis secured removal.

This alliance will help bolster Akrivis’s reach to clients around the world and Mr. Takahashi’s office will serve as a representative office for Akrivis in Japan, the first such office for Akrivis.

“We are very excited about Mr. Takahashi’s alliance with Akrivis, and consistent with Akrivis’s commitment to providing clients excellent representation with a global reach, this will only further strengthen our ability to serve clients in this very complex area of law that is even more nascent in other parts of the world,” said Akrivis partner Farhad Alavi, who continued “This move will help establish a foothold for the firm in East Asia, where we have served various clients over the years, and a market which we intend to expand.”

A graduate of Tufts University, Hamburg University, University of Bologna, Aix-Marseille University, and Waseda University, Mr. Takahashi’s has served as a member of METI’s Working Group on Anti Money Laundering Guidance for Mail Receiving Business (2019), the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Working Group on Formulation of National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (2019-2021), and as an Overseas Business Development Expert on Standards and Certification for the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)  (2018-2019) and a consultant to OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct (2020-2021). Mr. Takahashi has also worked at K&K Gates in the United States.

Akrivis Law Group, PLLC, based in Washington, DC, representing clients around the United States and the world on complex U.S. trade compliance matters like sanctions, export controls, and anti-corruption, as well as financial regulatory matters and international corporate transactions.

*Mr. Takahashi is qualified in Japan and does not practice law in any U.S. jurisdiction.