K&L Gates sign K&L Gates office/photo by Diego M. Radzinschi
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K&L Gates has rehired Tokyo corporate partner Tsuguhito Omagari, who left about a year ago to join the Tokyo-based firm Sonderhoff & Einsel.

Omagari focuses on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private investment in public entities, aircraft financing, and real estate investment transactions. He was part of the team that advised Japan Airlines Co. on a $9.75 billion order of A350 jetliners from European aeroplane manufacturer Airbus SE in 2013.

Before leaving for Sonderhoff, Omagari was with K&L Gates for about seven years, joining in 2011 as part of a 10-lawyer team from Clifford Chance, where he started his legal career in 2002. He made partner at K&L Gates in 2014.

"We are happy to have Tsuguhito rejoin our Tokyo office," Ryan Dwyer, managing partner of K&L Gates' Tokyo office, said in a statement. "His addition amplifies our Japanese corporate/M&A offerings and enhances our ability to represent Japanese corporate clients and financial institutions in strategic corporate/M&A transactions across the region."

M&A activity in Japan – both inbound and outbound – has been on the rise as Japanese companies seek to expand into overseas markets against the backdrop of a shrinking domestic economy, government support for outbound investment, and governance reforms that have put pressure on Japanese CEOs to improve returns on equity.

K&L Gates has recruited several M&A lawyers as Tokyo partners in recent years, including former Morrison & Foerster senior of counsel Dale Araki last month, former Jones Day counsel Dooyong Kang last year, and former Jones Day of counsel Eric Sedlak in 2017.

The U.S. firm now has 12 partners in its Tokyo office. Among global firms, Morrison & Foerster and Baker McKenzie have the largest number of attorneys and the strongest presence in Tokyo, while the offices of most other international firms in Japan traditionally have been relatively small.

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