| The Japan Federation of Bar Associations has shaken the nation’s international legal community with its release of a statement indicating that all foreign lawyers must be registered to practice. Registration at partner level as gaikokuho-jimu-bengoshi, or gaiben, is common, but not so among the majority of counsel and associates. To qualify as gaiben, an attorney must have practised for at least three years, two of which have to have been outside Japan. The blanket registration requirement would have significant impact on the population of overseas lawyers recruited directly from law schools for their Japanese skills, who do not fulfil the home country practice provision. Local and overseas practitioners remain confused as to whether the proviso would apply to these junior lawyers, who work under the supervision of a registered partner, or only to those acting independently. South Korean practitioners recently engaged in a comparable debate, when the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement place a similar 3 year practice requirement on foreign counsel in the region. There, the situation remains unsettled due to hesitance on the part of the new US administration to ratify the accord. |
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