Catherine’s Monthly Wrap Up - July 2022
It was a very busy month over here at Catherine O’Connell Law HQ. In addition to my daily work as principal of my law firm helping my clients, and working as an external board member for Fujitsu I have been doing many other things that bring me joy. Here’s what I got up to!
My MOST exciting news in July was the launch of my newly revamped website. I wrote a blog all about the process and the people involved who helped me and you can read that here. Please jump over and check out my new website! I hope that you can get a glimpse of the person and personality behind the lawyer in the brand of Catherine O’Connell Law as that was my goal.
I appeared on the Global Chamber Globinar about “Doing Business in Japan” and shared 10 Top 10 Tips for doing business in Japan.
I also appeared on the Law and Finance Podcast with Terrell Turner talking about what is In-House counsel all about and how do companies get a benefit from having In-House counsel support? We also talked about me pioneering in the industry of fractional In-House legal services in the Japanese market. You can catch a snippet of the episode here and the full episode here.
Counsel to Counsel Podcast Host Steve Seckler invited me as a guest on his show and we talked about all kinds of topics such as working as a lawyer in Japan and the lessons that I have learned from my own podcast guests! That episode will be released at the end of August so look out for it in the August Monthly Wrap Up.
I recorded two podcasts for the Lawyer on Air Podcast coming up in Season 4. One guest is a fabulous private practice partner living her dream role in the firm. The other guest works at the top of her field of compliance & ethics in a top-brand pharmaceutical company in Tokyo and it’s a brilliant interview with some real gems to take away. Look out for these episodes in September.
The Belgium & Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in Japan (BLCCJ) invited myself and Mr Hiroshi Chiba back to present another Webinar to BLCCJ members, this time on Power Harassment. My summary of the takeaways I had as moderator of this event are here. I truly recommend Chiba sensei for your labor law advice as he is a specialist in this area and also has an easy to get on with personality! We also received some Belgium Beer for our efforts!
I co-hosted the recording of two podcasts with Jayne Nakata on the Jandals in Japan Podcast. One of these recordings released on August 1st and you can catch that episode here: It’s a great episode that is relevant to all business that people want to conduct with Japan because its core message is about building relationships and people connections in Japan, which is key to success here.
I’m part of the Ministry of Justice Translation of Japanese Laws into English Committee and this month worked on the Native English of two laws related to the environment. We work on two or three laws each month and there is a lot of work to be done here. More about this in future blogs and monthly wrap ups. Let me know if you are interested in this topic.
For Women in Law Japan where I am 2022 President, we invited Olga V. Mack to speak about Women Lawyers on Boards. She is a great speaker and her book Get on Board - Earning Your Ticket to a Corporate Board Seat is a great resource if you are a lawyer looking to secure an external board director seat. WILJ is now planning a second event on Women Lawyers on Boards with a panel of women lawyers who have secured board seats. More on that in an upcoming Monthly Wrap Up.
Last but not least, earlier in the month I was moderator at my first live book launch. The book was called GUS and written by David Sweet and illustrated by my good friend Jennifer Shinkai. It was such great fun to collaborate with them both. It was no “ordinary” book launch. We didn't go into how to write a book nor give advice on how to market and sell your book. What we did instead was give attendees a peek behind the curtain at the #process of how two artists who never envisioned that they would work together in this particular way, came together to craft a book. Check my post here for a run down of the themes we covered and some photos from the night.
In other news, my mum turned 89 in July and if I can be like her at her age I will be thrilled. It was a shame that circumstances prevented me being there this time in person but I am looking forward to being with mum to celebrate her 90th in July 2023.
That’s all from me. See you next month. Cheers Kampai and Bye for now!