Hiroaki Takagi > Latham & Watkins LLP > Hong Kong, Hong Kong > Lawyer Profile

Latham & Watkins LLP
18TH FLOOR, ONE EXCHANGE SQUARE
8 CONNAUGHT PLACE
CENTRAL HONG KONG
Hong Kong

Position

Hiroaki Takagi advises Japanese and international companies and private equity firms on complex M&A transactions with a Japan nexus.

Dual qualified in Japan and the US, Mr. Takagi draws on more than two decades of experience advising clients on:

    • Cross-border and domestic M&A transactions
    • Japanese and US securities regulations
    • Data privacy
    • Corporate governance and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters
    • Trade control
    • Other regulatory and general corporate law matters

He distills the complexities of Japanese market norms and regulatory frameworks into commercially focused legal advice for international clients. Mr. Takagi leverages his extensive experience navigating cross-border M&A to guide Japanese clients in transactions globally.

Mr. Takagi brings an in-depth understanding of public company law garnered from his secondment experience with the Civil Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Justice. In this role, he helped to oversee a major reform of the Companies Act in Japan, which passed into law in 2014.

Mr. Takagi is a member of the Dai-Ichi Tokyo Bar Association in Japan and the New York State Bar Association. He is Chairman of the Legal Education Committee of the Dai-Ichi Tokyo Bar Association and has served as a visiting professor at Gakushuin University Law School, where he lectured on M&A law. Mr. Takagi also actively participates with the Inter-Pacific Bar Association and serves on the Organizing Committee for its annual conference in Tokyo.

Lawyer Rankings

Japan > Corporate and M&A: International firms and joint ventures

Latham & Watkins Gaikokuho Joint Enterprise‘s corporate M&A team is headed up by Hong Kong-based Ji Liu, who is also the chair for the firm’s Asia corporate department. Work carried out by the team includes cross-border acquisitions, venture capital financings, strategic alliances, and other inbound and outbound corporate transactions. Notable names within the team include Hiroki Kobayashi, Ivan Smallwood and Hiroaki Takagi. Noah Carr left the firm in November 2023.