NEC Corporation
Manager, Legal Division Mr. Sho Tatsuta Assistant Manager, Legal Division Ms. Misako Sugae
Mr. Tatsuta: Our Legal Division has a “Corporate Legal Group” and three “Business Transaction Legal Group “with total of 50 staff members. What kind of people are working for legal division? Mr. Tatsuta: Most of the people have long carrier in this field. For myself, I was assigned to the legal division when I first joined the company. Since then I have been working only for legal division. As well as Ms. Sugae, most of the staffs in the legal division have wide experience in the field. How do you utilize legal information database? Mr. Sugae: “Business Transaction Group “uses the database when a trouble is expected. Utilize law and case database to look up similar cases in order to understand the issue in the past and how they settled in court. An internal working group (WG) is set up to study laws and academic viewpoints and it also use case database for research. There are study group for company law, bankruptcy law, labor law, and competition law.
“Corporate Legal Group” is handling the issues related to the Shareholders’ Meeting, the Board of Directors Meeting, Company Rules, Securities, Timely Disclosure, Commercial Registration based on the Company Law and Financial Instruments and Exchange Law.
“Business Transaction Group” has three teams based on the laws related to trade, exchange, or competition, to provide legal supports for business transactions including collaboration, development, and licensing contracts with both domestic and foreign companies, as well as for lawsuits and disputes.
We are providing legal support for top managements, each business unit and staff. We also collaborate with a dedicated team to handle application, registration, dispute and licensing of industrial property rights for patent, design and trade mark.
What is your impression of using WLJ?
Mr. Tatsuta: We used to use case database only. As WLJ comes with law database, I can jump from a case to the related article via link, which is very convenient. I also like the function to read “Hanrei Times” article with PDF.
Ms. Sugae: When I was doing a research for bankruptcy law related cases at a WG, I used WLJ and instantly knew that the “petition for the acceptance of a final appeal” has been filed. It is useful to have a function to show “current status” of the case. Also, we asked a consultant of Westlaw Japan to give us a product demonstration where we learned completely new methods and techniques for search. I am impressed when the accuracy of search increases drastically by modifying keywords.
Mr. Tatsuta: In my case, when I conducted legislation search, I received too many results and I wasn’t able to pick the right one. At the demonstration, I have learned to display “TOC “and how to read “revision history” and “article comparison table”, so I think I can use it more efficiently. I have been using the same database for the last 10 years and to be honest, I wasn’t actually expected any efficiency to the database and I thought “there should not be much differences with other services.” However, with WLJ, I can increase efficiency by utilizing the various functionalities. I would like to invite consultants from Westlaw Japan to show us more tips and tricks.
Do you have any request for WLJ?
Mr. Tatsuta: One of the reasons to choose WLJ is that it has wider coverage of cases. However, as it contains so many cases, it is not suitable for quick search and I sometimes use internet search engine when I need the information quickly. Therefore, a function for “quick search” would be useful for us when we need a brief look at a certain issue.
How do you deal with the IT industry, a rapidly changing industry that involves many disputes?
Mr. Tatsuta: IT field involves new types of disputes, so old cases are not always useful. When we get in a trouble, we usually ask attorneys for help. Therefore, legal division is handling preventive legal works and utilizes WLJ for preventing disputes. Also, we are considering using alert function for both cases and legislation aspects.
IT field is rapidly changing and is involving special technologies, therefore we need to act as an “interpreter” for legal experts. Although an expert committee system is formed, it is still crucial to explain the details to the judges. In order to do so, we need our attorneys to understand the technology and our business thoroughly.
What is the future of the legal division?
Mr. Tatsuta: Currently, expectations for the legal division are increasing both from internally and externally. We need to enhance compliance and promote business for better performances. Our task is to align legal function with business of the whole group company in order to gather them to the headquarters for more efficiency.
Ms. Sugae: Legal database information can be effectively utilized when providing appropriate legal support for the whole group company.