The day becoming a California Attorney

I passed July 2022 California Bar Exam. Since I already satisfied other requirements, such as MPRE、Moral Character& Fitness, the remaining requirement to practice at California is to take an Attorney’s Oath in front of the consular of American Embassy on December 7. As a matter of fact, many things happened – I noticed I forgot to bring my passport just before I headed to American Embassy (I had My Number Card which was OK as my ID), I brought my PC and the clerk at Embassy pointed me I needed to keep it to somewhere else. So, I ran and took 5 minutes to go and back to Tameikesanno station for searching and keeping my PC in its coin-locker (daily training works for me). Also, in front of the consular, I just sign my name on the sheet without raising the hand, meaning not like usual oath (maybe she was not accustomed to see the attorney oath sheet.) There were really like my oath and they were fun to me.

When I was a kid, after I watched two dramas on TV about lawyer’s works called “Way of sunflowers (sunflower is a symbol of lawyer’s budge” and “Hat and Sunflowers” on NHK, I was fascinated their stories and wanted to be lawyer who can help the persons requiring legal services. Since then, I spent many decades and 20 years passed after I graduated Law School in the US. But now I feel so released I am able to say “I passed the bar exam” to the persons who cooperated and helped me a lot.

Originally, the reason I wanted to enter law school in the US is that I thought it would be my advantage to get back to the entertainment industry if I gain the entertainment related legal knowledge. After around 5 years passed since I moved from record label Pony Canyon to Cosmo Communications (now merged by Hakuhodo, second biggest ad agency in Japan and named Hakuhodo Gravity), I really wanted to go back and work for the entertainment industry again.

At that time, there was no faculty of studies at universities in Japan (it was before the reform of legal examination system and there was no law school in Japan) providing entertainment laws including copyright law. So, my conclusion to gain legal knowledge of entertainment industry was that I needed to go to foreign countries for study of this area of laws. One day, I encountered and read the book “The Era of Entertainment Lawyer” written by Atsushi Naito. I hit upon the good idea from this book that I graduated Law School in the US and would become entertainment lawyer which was rare in Japan (and still now). This book is most influential book when I determined to be an entertainment lawyer.

However, I did not have law degree and had no rights to enter LLM program which is the third year program of JD program in the US. On the other hand, I do not have money, nor confident to get high score of LSAT. So entering law school as JD students was not my choice. After the thorough research, I decided to enter the correspondence division of faculty of law provided by the general university in Japan so that I could continue my work while studying. From the several universities, I selected Chuo University and began studying there. I planned to apply LLM program of the US Law School after I got law degree.

At Cosmo, I was extremely busy, not enough time to eat and take holidays, as the media planner. Therefore, I could not even obtain the time for study without other’s help. The time I went to university to get credits, I asked my subordinate for working on behalf of me. For saving my time, I spent tons of money for buying the materials instead of going to the library and made a research. I sacrificed all my holidays and weekends for drafting the reports or went to the seminar held in all over japan by getting the seminars and taking the exams. (one time, I studied for the exam in the hotel room by watching a world cup soccer tournament!). I wrote graduate thesis only for three days during some golden week. The professor Satoru Osanai (although being said so, he wrote recommendation letter in English when I applied for law school) told me “Your thesis is very interesting as novel but can’t say quite good as thesis of law” but he gave me the grade A and I could graduate for two and half years after entering. The fact that I obtained the law degree at correspondence division made me at risk- not able to take the bar exam in the US – but because of the cooperation of the director of correspondence division of Chuo University, I could convince the California Bar Examiner that even it called correspondence division, this is the difference from the distance program in the US and my degree should be treated the same as usual law degree (I encountered lots of challenging matter after graduating law school to take the California Bar. If interested please check my previous blog here). Because of my action, I believe the applicant graduating correspondence division in Japan will be able to take bar exam without taking another test before, at least in California. If my action will be benefit for prospective applicants, this is good for me as well.

After graduating Chuo University, I needed to overcome my bad English skill, so I went to the preparatory school for TOEFL test. Although I studied a lot, my score did not drastically up and like the balance by the end, I got score 593 in January (it was said score 600 was minimum requirement for entering into Law School, so I imagine I failed several schools because of this score). My friend working at another AD Agency, already passed MBA of US Business Schools, gave me all the materials he used previous year and brought them to my apartment. He always encouraged me whenever the result of the exam was not good. I can’t thank him enough.

When it comes to the choice of law school, I went to Barnes & Noble to buy law school guide book because I could not get enough information via internet in the late 1990s. I sent the e-mail to almost all the law school in the US, having LLM Program and entertainment law program, whether I will be able to apply.  5 law schools, of 10 school I applied, admitted my entrance based on my score, recommendation letters and essay writing why I want to be an entertainment lawyer (the rep of my essay at preparatory school was a writer and he changed my mediocre essay to extraordinary great one). I selected Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School located at south village, NY which affiliates with Yeshiva University, in the Jewish community. The reason why I selected was because I was convinced my acquaintance’s advice, living in NY, advised me “you have to enter law school in New York if you want to study entertainment because NY has lots of entertainment events, industries and arts” (later I asked him to review my assignment even I knew he used to work for the United Nations as writer, shame…) and Cardozo was 4th ranked law school as the intellectual property area in the US News. Since Cardozo was belonging to the Jewish community, renowned entertainment lawyers provided the lecture as adjunct professors and the famous artists appeared in its events. I felt like I could fly when composer, producer and musician, Nile Rodgers were one of the guest of some events and I saw him so close. Because Jewish students had lots of advantage (internship opportunity as well), one time I would not be a member of entertainment law class and Toni Fine, associate director caring for international students (she later moved to Fordham as assistant dean and cared for Japanese students including initial KK)advised me to claim to the Dean (then the number class was increased and I could participate). But overall, it was right decision I selected to enter this law school. It was a good memory I entered the Entertainment Marketing Course at NYU, took lots of entertainment related classes & expanded my network and worked with Hank, renowned entertainment lawyer, to whom Ken Watanabe introduced me (in fact, Hank was taking care of my tax issue in NY now, great friend of mine) after graduating Cardozo.

Around 20 years passed since I graduated Cardozo Law School and completed marketing course at NYU. During 20 years, lots of good and bad things happened but I now looked back these years, I deeply feel that I could not be a lawyer without many people’s help. After going back to Japan, I worked for Entertainment or IT companies as legal counsel and I have been called upon to assist these clients based on my experiences and knowledges of these areas of laws. So long as I’ve been working in Japan, it seems that the license of California Attorney is not requisite for the work from now on. On the other hand, Los Angeles is the core of entertainment as well as New York, the HQ of IT companies I previously worked for locate around Silicon Valley and I want to provide an assistance for CA corporations, or 2nd or 3rd generations of Japanese living in California. I need to seriously consider how to repay for the people giving me the kindness and help. Of course, I continue to work and enhance the businesses as Gyosei Shoshi.

(the photo I used is the Brookly bridge and Manhattan from long island side. I clearly remember the time when I reached Manhattan via bridge from JFK airport for entering Cardozo. This type of photo makes me encouraged because my purpose is over there, I need to cross the bridge- meaning need to make much endeavor to achieve the purpose. So I used several types of similar photos putting as desk top of my PC as well as the decorating my living room at my condo.)