Magus International Legal Office

Magus International Legal Office offers legal advisory services on a monthly subscription model for companies.

Features of our Legal Counsel Service

(1) Email consultation fees will be included in theadvisory fee.There is no limit to the number of e-mail consultations.

(2) The fees for permit legal reviews service is waived. There is no limitation on the number of times.

(3) Legal checks of various documents such as Japanese contracts, compliance/conformity assessment documents, instruction manuals, and rated nameplates are free of charge. There is no limit to the number of checks, but there may be a translation fee for documents other than Japanese or English, such as contracts in German or Korean.

(4) Discounts on various document preparation fees.

(5) Your company will be assigned to a dedicated staff member who is familiar with your company's business and the fields you are consulting on. For example, for companies involved in marine development, an lawyer who is qualified as a diver or a maritime agent will be assigned to your company. In addition, the staff member in charge will study your company's specialized field independently and make every effort to deepen his/her understanding of your company's business and products as much as possible.

(6) In the event of a product accident or customs clearance accident, we will provide emergency support to help you settle the situation, including consulting on recalls, advance preparation for and attendance at regulatory agency accident investigations, and so on.

FAQ

Q1: Can I consult with you on matters other than legal matters? Is there anything that I should not consult with you about?

A1: We are willing to consult with you as long as we can be of help to you with our knowledge. For example, we are not limited to trade and technical legal affairs, but also provide consultation on Japanese business practices, introduction of housing for expatriates in Japan, and many other matters.

However, we are not able to provide consultation on matters that are considered the exclusive practice of other professionals, due to legal regulations. For example, typically, you would need to consult an attorney for litigation such as claims for damages, and you would need to consult a tax accountant for transfer pricing taxation. Since we are administrative lawyer, we will inform you that we are unable to provide advice in such cases due to legal regulations, and we will also inform you of the appropriate parties to consult.

Q2: What types of companies have concluded legal advisory contracts with your firm?

A2: We have legal advisory contracts with a wide variety of companies, from large corporations such as Japanese national companies and S&P 100 companies to start-ups with less than 5 employees and in their first year of operation.

Our clients and advisors come from a wide range of regions, including not only North America, Western Europe, and East Asia, which have strong economic ties with Japan, but also Southeast Asia, Northern Europe, and Eastern Europe.

Q3: What is the best way to make the most of a legal counsel?

A3: First, it is important to clarify what you expect from your advisor and what you do not expect from your advisor, and to share this awareness between your company and your advisor.

Next, we recommend that your company share information and communicate with the advisor in a timely manner. For example, if you explain your new business plan or new product development plan, even before the details are finalized, we can help you identify legal issues at an early stage.

We often consult with our clients on new business plans just before final decisions are made because of concerns that it may be inconvenient to contact legal counsel early on when plans have not been finalized, etc.

We are often asked to discuss new business plans just before final decisions are made because of concerns that it may be inconvenient to contact legal counsel at an early stage when plans have not been finalized, but it may be too late to find problems at this point.

For example, there may be a case in which the client was not aware of the need to obtain new permits and approvals for a japan business and will not be able to start the business in time even if they start the procedures now, or a case in which the design of a new product was found not to comply with the japanese technical standards set by japanese law and needs to be redesigned or modified, but the new product will not be ready in time for the new launch.

For this reason, we recommend that you consult with us from the early stages of your project, so please feel free to share information and consult with us at an early stage.

Strengths of our Firm's legal counsel services

(1) We will make every effort to prepare and study in advance to understand your company's products, business, and technology.

(2) We will reply to your e-mail as soon as possible.

(3) We will emphasize communication and make proposals in an easy-to-understand and proactive manner.

(4) We will support your company with our expertise in law, trade, and technology.

(1) We will study as much as possible about your business, industry, and products before taking charge of your case. Our firm believes that in order to provide good legal advisory services, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the products, business, and technology of the company.

For example, when entering into an advisory contract with a salvage company, we obtained a diving license so that the staff member in charge could understand at least the terminology used in diving operations.

When entering into an advisory contract with a company in the radiation field, the staff member in charge visited a nuclear power plant to participate in training related to radiation and to obtain certification as a chief radiation protection supervisor.

These advance preparations enabled us to smoothly understand the products and technologies of our client companies when we were asked about them.

(2) Our firm believes that a speed is also very important in business. Information is useless if it is not available at the right time. However, replies from law firms are often slower. We try to reply and answer as quickly as possible, usually within one to three hours, and even during busy periods, we reply within one business day maximum.

(3) Our firm places a high priority on communication with our corporate clients. Specifically, we focus on constructive communication with our clients to propose alternative solutions and explain concerns and problems to management and business units in an easy-to-understand way. Our firm should not be a legal firm that simply tells clients what "can" and "cannot" be done, or a legal firm that is so concerned with strict and complete accuracy that it uses only difficult terminology that the business units do not understand.

(4) Our firm was established as a law firm that comprehensively handles matters related to economic security, and our two main fields of practice are technical law, which requires knowledge of IT, chemistry, electricity, etc., and trade law, which requires knowledge of international transactions, imports and exports, etc. Therefore, we specialize in dealing with licenses and approvals such as the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act and the Electric Safety Act, which require knowledge of science and trade practice.

(5) Our firm has a broad and strong network of Japanese barristers and patent attorneys, as well as tax accountants skilled in international taxation, and we can serve as a point of contact.