Following on from an aggressive expansion programme that has yielded five appointments to the partnership in the past three months, Linklaters' Tokyo has announced that Hidehiro Utsumi will join the ranks from Japanese firm Nishimura & Partners.
Coming on board as partner, Utsumi specializes in cross-border transactions and as a chartered accountant. This means he also brings tax-structuring experience to Linklaters, which the firm stresses will enable clients to access M&A structuring advice from both legal and tax point of views.
His poaching follows recent announcements from Linklaters Tokyo about other senior hires in the office. Earlier this month, securitisation specialist Paul Kruger was named partner, while over the prior two months Reiko Sakimura (capital markets), Mitsuhiro Yasuda (capital markets) and Akihiro Wani (structured finance and derivatives) moved up the ladder.