Eiji Masuda is an attorney-at-law admitted both in Japan and New York, and is a partner at Niimura Sogo Law Office. He received B.A. in Law from Chuo University and L.L.M. from Columbia Law School. After working for one of the biggest law firms in Japan for several years, he experienced being a visiting scholar at Yale Law School, a lecturer at Graduate School of Law, Chuo University, and a General Counsel of legal department (Private Client Group) and Executive Officer at Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co., Ltd. He handles a full range of corporate matters, especially banking business (Retail), compliance, corporate crimes, and M＆A. Currently, he serves as a mediating consultant and a member of the self-regulatory committee in Tokyo District at Japan Securities Dealers Association, a member of a compliance committee for a REIT, and a member of an exploratory committee of several listed companies for defense from hostile TOB.