JILA lights the way

Yasuhiro Umeda says he founded the Japan In-house Lawyers Association (JILA) “simply because I needed it”.

Umeda is a senior legal officer in the legal affairs division, general affairs department, of Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). “When I became in-house counsel of NHK in December 2000, not only was I the first in-house counsel of a broadcaster in Japan, but also I didn’t have any experience as a professional lawyer,” he says. “NHK didn’t know how to use me, and I didn’t know what I could do for them.

“I had simply expected that an in-house counsel organization like the ACC (Association of Corporate Counsel) had already existed in Japan, and I would obtain useful information necessary to succeed as an in-house counsel through such an organization. But my expectation was wrong. There was no such organization in Japan. So I decided to establish an organization of in-house lawyers by myself.”

Umeda says the biggest challenge was how to involve senior counsel in JILA. “I planned to network with young and junior in-house counsel first, and after that begin to persuade senior counsel to participate in the organization,” he says. “I established Japan In-house Lawyers Network, a predecessor of JILA, in August 2001. Then we gradually began activities to show that this association was functioning effectively as an association of in-house counsel at all levels and sectors.