Attorney at foreign law

Attorneys at foreign law (外国法事務弁護士, gaikokuhō jimu bengoshi), or gaiben (外弁) for short, are lawyers from foreign countries licensed to practice law in Japan.

The term gaiben is composed of the characters for 外 (gai), defined as "outside, without" and 弁 (ben)", defined as speech, tongue". Two authoritative translations of the term are Registered Foreign Lawyers (RFL), or Foreign Special Members. The colloquial term gaiben is often used by individuals, but is not determinative.

Before becoming a gaiben, a lawyer must:

A 13-member screening committee of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations reviews each application, a process which usually takes several months. Upon approval, the lawyer's official title becomes "Attorney at Foreign Law for [state]," with their home jurisdiction filled in.

By law, gaiben can only give advice pertaining to the law of their home jurisdiction, and cannot draft legal documents or represent Japanese clients in intrastate matters or probate matters without the assistance of a qualified bengoshi (attorney at law). They are also prohibited from representing clients in courtroom litigation, although they may represent clients in private arbitration. As a result, they are generally involved in intermediating between foreign clients and Japanese lawyers, intermediating between foreign and Japanese clients, or assisting Japanese clients with foreign legal matters.

Several thousand foreign-qualified lawyers, many of them Japanese nationals, work in Japan as employees of law firms or corporate legal departments without being admitted as gaiben. Nonetheless, there are several legal benefits to qualifying as a gaiben:

The main drawback to qualifying as a gaiben is the cost of Japanese bar association membership, which is often over ¥60,000 per month.

As of June 2013 there were 363 gaiben registered in Japan, almost all of whom were registered with one of the three Tokyo bar associations. The main jurisdictions of admission were New York (102), England and Wales (60), California (45), the People's Republic of China (29), New South Wales (16) and Hawaii (14).

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Wikipedia