Kengo Nishigaki founded GI&T Law Office LC in 2020. Before that, he worked at Baker & McKenzie from 2000 to 2020, being a partner of the dispute resolution group for more than 10 years. From 2004 to 2005, he worked at Baker & McKenzie’s Chicago office where he worked on matters related to compliance with the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He is admitted to practice in Japan and New York. Kengo was partially seconded to ZimmerBiomet at its Japanese subsidiary, a global medical device company to support their in-house work from 2016 to 2017.

Practice Focus:

Kengo’s practice focuses on fraud investigations for Japanese and foreign listed companies, as well as matters related to compliance with anti-corruption laws including the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, UK Bribery Act and the Unfair Competition Prevention Act of Japan. Kengo also represented major Japanese and foreign-listed companies in the healthcare and IT industry in litigation, arbitration and mediation proceedings in relation to commercial and labor disputes .

Representative Clients, Cases or Matters:

  • Assisted Japanese listed companies with establishing global whistleblower systems.

  • Represented a global pharmaceutical company in an international arbitration under the ICC rules seated in Paris.

  • Represented an international IT company operating in Tokyo for several labor disputes at the courts of Japan.

  • Represented a Japanese real estate company for negotiation with an international hotel chain to open a hotel in Tokyo.

  • Assisted global pharmaceutical and medical device companies with clinical research agreements with hospitals.

  • Assisted one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies in a dispute with the Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, the largest Japanese pharmaceutical industry organization, regarding alleged inappropriate spending on healthcare professionals.

  • Assisted one of the world's largest medical device companies in a dispute with the Japan Fair Competition Council, a medical device industry association given regulatory authority under the Japanese Anti-Trust Law.

  •  Served as a member of a third party investigation committee for Japan Transportation Consultants, one of the largest consulting and engineering companies in Japan, regarding its suspected bribery of foreign officials in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan which led to the arrest of four company officials in Vietnam and a further investigation in Indonesia. This has been the largest foreign bribery case since the enactment of Article 18 of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act of Japan to comply with to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

Publications, Presentations and Articles:

  • Provided FCPA trainings to dealers in the medical device injustry for American Medical Devices and Diagnostics, an industry organization, from 2012 to 2020.

  • Authored “Introduction to FCPA Resource Guide 2nd Edition”, Business Law Journal, LexisNexis, November 2020.

  • Chief editor and co-author, "Anti-Corruption Practice for Companies Doing Business Abroad, " Chuokeizai-sha, May 20, 2013, Language: Japanese.

  • Co-author, "How to Respond to FCPA Resource Guide", Business Law Journal, Lexis Nexis, March 2013.

Professional Affiliations:

  • Kengo is a member of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, the Tokyo Bar Association and the New York Bar Association.

Education and Admission:

  • Kengo received his LLB from the University of Tokyo, and his LLM from the New York University School of Law. Kengo is qualified to practice in Japan and New York.

Languages:

  • Japanese, English