Speaker details

Biography

Akihiro Hironaka has extensive experience handling complex, large-scale disputes, including product liability and mass tort claims, as well as contract and tax disputes, for clients in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, automotive, energy, and other industries. Akihiro is a graduate of the University of Tokyo (LLB, 1993) and Harvard Law School (LLM, 2003), and is licensed to practice law in Japan and New York. He served as a Japanese district court judge from 1998 until 2000, and worked at Arnold & Porter (Washington, D.C.) from 2003 until 2004. Akihiro is a Fellow of CIArb, and serves as an officer on the Product Law and Advertising Committee of the IBA. His representative publications include contributions to Civil Procedure in Japan (Juris; edited by Yasuhei Taniguchi, et al.) and Collective Litigation in Europe: Law and Practice (Juris; edited by Mary E. Bartkus, et. al.). In 2026, he was named one of the "Asia Top 30 Litigators" by Asian Legal Business. In 2022, he received the award for “Dispute Resolution Lawyer of the Year” at the ALB Japan Law Awards.