Corporate legal affairs

Mercury General LPC & Partners (“Mercury”) advises on a variety of legal issues related to business activities quickly and precisely. Mercury also provides advice regarding corporate governance, including the construction of compliance systems. In addition, we deal with services related to incorporation, stocks, merger, business transfer, the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law, drafting contracts, and unavoidable issues in conducting business activities, such as antitrust and intellectual property.

Legal advisory

Mercury has legal advisory contracts with listed and unlisted companies in a variety of lines of business such as financial institution, publishing, real estate, M&A consulting, robotics, AI development, development eateries, chain restaurants, apparel, beauty salon chains, systems development, application service provider, pharmaceutical companies, dispensing pharmacies, construction, parking management, leasing apartments, business consultants, cosmetic surgeries, cemetery operations, insurance agents, prototype/industrial design development, warehousing, logistics/trucking company, concert hall operations, recruitment/staffing agency, online marketing, internet/mail-order sales, crypto currencies related business, food delivery businesses, product sales, liquid crystal panel/semiconductor manufacturing , material production, character licensing, trade, diving school, game development, and more.

For these clients, Mercury provides various legal services such as responding to day-to-day troubles, drafting and reviewing contracts, participating in negotiations and writing certificates.

Legal research

For foreigners and foreign companies, it is necessary to comply with Japanese laws and regulations when starting a business in Japan. Japan has much more advanced legislation than emerging countries, but it is evaluated that (1) some laws such as the Labor Law, Land Lease Law, and Consumer Contract Law are too biased toward protecting consumers and the masses, and (2) in lots of situations where an administrative agency is given a wide range of discretionary powers, and just reading the provisions of the law does not reveal the practical operation or practical conclusions. Furthermore, there are some cases to obtain a no-action letter form an administrative agency to minimize legal risk.

We support foreigners and foreign corporations in legal research so that they can correctly understand Japanese laws and regulations and develop their business in a safer way from a viewpoint of legal risk.

M&A

Mercury handles overall procedures for acquisitions of companies and businesses, such as studying acquisition schemes, due diligence, and drafting contracts for listed and unlisted companies. Mercury has a lot of experience dealing with acquisitions related to liquidation such as civil rehabilitation as an agent or advisor for sellers or buyers, in addition to usual acquisitions. We have also achieved going-private transactions by MBO.

Litigation/Arbitration

We are accepting requests of legal proceedings and international commercial arbitration in Japan on behalf of foreigners and foreign companies.

In addition, we can also handle compulsory execution cases in Japan based on litigation judgments and arbitral awards issued in foreign countries (however, it is necessary to scrutinize what kind of judgment is made in which country before acceptance. ).

The legal proceedings system in Japan is very sophisticated and well-developed, but there are also some problems that digitization is delayed compared to other developed countries and it still takes a long time for a conclusion. In addition, the language that can be used in Japanese court proceedings is limited to Japanese by law.

The support of experienced Japanese lawyers is extremely important for dealing with court proceedings in Japan.

Venture legal affairs

Mercury has clients including many growing venture businesses. We not only make advisory contracts and provide legal advice, but increasingly have our lawyers participate as directors or auditors and contribute to the development of the company. In addition to offering legal advice, Mercury also provides advice from managerial viewpoints by utilizing our networks among various industries and the knowledge of business models.

Debt collection

Mercury generally handles various procedures for debt collection, such as demands for payment by contents-certified mail, creating notarial deeds, civil preservation procedures such as provisional seizure and provisional disposition, filing conciliations, filing civil actions, and various civil execution proceedings.

Mercury strives to minimize the costs of clients as much as possible, examining the probability of debt recovery. Therefore, we sometimes set retainer fees lower than the normal amount, and we sometimes refuse a client’s request in cases where the costs are expected to be over the amount of collection. In addition, for clients with legal advisory contracts, Mercury is particularly conscious of how to increase their chances of debt recovery, and advises accordingly while in the process of drafting contracts.

Making documents

Mercury drafts contracts, content-certified mail, and internal corporate regulations such as rules of employment. We believe that it is vital to maintain and examine contracts in order to minimize corporate risk. Moreover, the maintenance of internal regulations occupies an important position in the legal counsel for ventures such as preparation for initial public offering (IPO).

Mercury also actively researches new legal fields and most-advanced business models for contract creation. In making these new types of contracts, in particular, it is necessary for us to do detailed interviews with our clients and to understand exactly the contents of their businesses, such as advantages and risks. To enable this, Mercury strives to collect and digest information actively, such as the trends of various industries and the business models that attract attention, in addition to enhancing legal knowledge.

Labor legal affairs

Mercury advises on various problems about labor and personnel affairs, and we deal with making various internal rules such as rules of employment. We also solve legal disputes by responding to collective bargaining, responding to recommendations of rectification from labor standards offices, and dealing with procedures in labor tribunals, labor litigation, labor injunction, and labor relations commissions.

Private liquidation and legal liquidation

Mercury handles legal liquidation procedures, such as bankruptcy, civil rehabilitation, corporate reorganization, and business reproduction ADR. Mercury also offers flexible solutions depending on each company’s current state, such as private liquidation, out of court negotiations such as talks with financial institutions, support of an active business reproduction with M&A, etc.  

Mercury is able to take prompt and suitable action in cooperation with certified public accountants, particularly in the petition phase of the legal liquidation procedure, in which tight deadlines can create unexpected difficulties. Moreover, we are able to help to find sponsors when necessary, gaining the cooperation of appropriate professionals such as M&A advisors, regardless of advisory contracts with the clients.

Consulting

Mercury analyzes the company’s financial status, provides advice on corporate downsizing and business restructuring, and supports for building restructuring schemes.

Mercury also supports the creation of short term and mid/long-term business plans at clients’ request utilizing insights from outside the legal field to facilitate the steady and continuous financial growth of our clients. To enable this, we keep up to date on fields that traditionally have been considered out of scope for lawyers, such as gathering and analyzing information on domestic and foreign economic conditions, on listed and unlisted companies, and on other business matters. As a result, Mercury has been successful in corporate restructuring and financing.

Intellectual property

Mercury provides advice for protecting and utilizing patent rights, utility model rights, design rights, trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property rights. We mainly handle negation and conclusion of license agreements, sales agreements, collateral agreements, and various other contracts, in addition to providing support for applications to the Japan Patent Office. We strive to provide the best service, utilizing our professional network, as appropriate, for projects that require complex knowledge. For example, in patent cases that are particularly complex, we can introduce lawyers with a high degree of expertise to our clients.

Construction disputes

Mercury handles negotiation and conclusion of contracts for work (including drafting contracts), conservation and collection of construction receivables, and provision of information and advice regarding regulations under the City Planning Act and the Building Standards Act, etc. We also provide advice to address neighboring disputes that arise in relation to building operations, and to deal with the solution of construction defects.

Real estate

Mercury handles the negotiation and conclusion of sales contracts for real estate (including creating contracts), the problems associated with the termination of lease contracts and evictions, the resolution of disputes over lease agreements, and legal issues related to condominiums and their associations.

Medical malpractice

Mercury provides varied advice regarding malpractice issues, receiving the cooperation of doctors and other professionals. We can accept offers from both hospitals and patients.

Individual legal affairs

Personal bankruptcy, civil rehabilitation, and voluntary liquidation

Mercury General LPC & Partners (“Mercury”) deals with personal bankruptcy, civil rehabilitation and voluntary liquidation. We provide advice and legal support for rebuilding the lives of heavy debtors. Mercury has many achievements getting overpaid money back from excessively high interest-rate moneylenders.

Traffic accidents

Mercury handles the negotiation of settlements of various claims for damages caused by traffic accidents and the filing of lawsuits, primarily on behalf of victims. Especially in litigation, we strive to maximize the relief, by not only claiming for damages based on formal standards provided by bar associations, but by specifically claiming problems such as disabilities resulting from the accident.

Inheritance problems

Mercury deals with various inheritance matters, such as the creation of a will, the execution of a probate, the division of an estate, the abatement of a statutory reserved portion, and the disinheritance of an heir. Mercury is also able to guide clients to file through various court procedures, including applying for mediations and adjudications and filing lawsuits. We strive to achieve as smooth a resolution as possible, though these problems often need time to solve because of the number of parties, the complexity of the property rights, and the serious and emotional conflict among heirs.

Family problems

Mercury provides advice on and handles dispute resolution about a variety of legal issues regarding parent-child relationships, relationships between relatives, and marital relationships.

We strive to meet client’s requests as much as possible, such as the acquisition of parental custody, the distribution of property, claims to alimony, and child support by applying for mediations and adjudications and filing lawsuits, to deal with family problems, mainly divorce problems.

Criminal cases and accusation

Mercury handles criminal-investigation defense and after-prosecution defense related to Penal Code, Act on Special Measures Concerning Criminal Cases, tax law, and a range of business laws. We also work as an attendant in juvenile cases. We have participated in duty criminal defense work and court-appointed defense activities for public interest. Mercury also deals with the procedure of accusation as an agent of criminal case victims (corporate and individual). We strive to accomplish clients’ objectives by encouraging investigative authorities to make a proper investigation quickly as well as creating and submitting documents to investigative authorities.