Masuda Funai

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Masuda, Funai, Eifert & Mitchell, Ltd. is a U.S. law firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with additional offices in suburban Chicago and Los Angeles, California.

History

Masuda Funai was founded in 1929 by Thomas Masuda. Masuda was a general practitioner, with significant ties to the Japanese community and government of Japan, having been honored with Order of the Sacred Treasure Fourth and Fifth Class by the country of Japan. Masaru Funai concentrated his practice on advising foreign enterprises entering the U.S. market on all phases of business commencement and he was also honored with The Fourth Class of the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese government in 2001. The firm’s other namesakes, Helmut Eifert and James Mitchell, joined the firm in the 1960s.

The firm consisted of 13 attorneys and one office in 1981 and has grown steadily into a national law practice with three offices and more than 40 attorneys. Masuda Funai has a broad range of practice areas, including significant business, distribution & sales, employment, immigration, litigation and real estate practices.

In 2011, Masuda Funai entered into an international cooperative and collaborative relationship with Kitahama Partners, a 70-attorney Japanese law firm with three offices located in the cities of Osaka, Tokyo and Fukuoka, Japan.

Practice Areas

Business (Corporate Law, M&A, Financings)	Immigration
Distribution & Sales	Intellectual Property & Technology
Employment, Labor & Benefits	Litigation
Environmental, Health & Safety	Real Estate
Estate Planning & Administration

Notable Attorneys and Alumni

Dayne O. Kono – member of the 2010 Japanese American Leadership Delegation
Kathleen M. Gaber – former attorney for the Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
Dooyong Kang – former research professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES), Kyungnam University, one of Korea's leading research institutes in the field of foreign policy and North Korean studies
Lawrence Flood – current associate judge for the Circuit Court of Cook County, Chicago, Illinois

Professional Affiliations

Alliott Group

Masuda Funai became a member of the Alliott Group in 2012. The Alliott Group is a worldwide alliance of independent accounting, law and consulting firms, which provides a framework that enables member firms to share knowledge, mix with like-minded professionals and provide their clients with access to a truly global solution.