The two firms combined collected a total of seven trophies at the Awards - which were organised by Asian Legal Business magazine - just ahead of Linklaters on six and Mori Hamada & Matsumoto on five.

Traditionally considered the most international in outlook of the major Japanese firms, Anderson Mori's role as counsel to UK mobile operator Vodafone on its ¥319bn (US$3.1bn) public tender offer for minority shares it did not own in Vodafone Holdings KK was largely responsible for Anderson Mori & Tomotsune reaching the top spot for work completed in 2004.

Working closely alongside lawyers from Linklaters and Vodafone's in-house team, lead partner Osamu Hirakawa helped devise the unique and novel triple deal structure after many weeks of structuring attempts by banking and other various advisers.

Setting several benchmarks in Japan, the largest take-private transaction ever announced in the jurisdiction saw Anderson Mori collect Japanese Deal Team of the Year - with the deal winning in both the Telecommunications category as well as Japan Deal of the Year, arguably the most prestigious category of the night.

The inaugural ALB Deals of the Year Awards Japan 2005 were held at the Happo-en venue in Tokyo on 16 June in front of a packed crowd of nearly 200 lawyers, bankers and businessmen. The guest list constituted a veritable "who's who" of the legal industry from Japan.

The awards for legal excellence were spread across 20 categories, with recognition placed on the key transactions in Japan that took place in 2004 and the firms that acted on those deals.

Newly merged firm Linklaters - which joined forces with leading Japanese lawyers Mitsuhiro Yasuda and Akihiro Wani (and their team) in December 2004 and which become a full merger as soon as the law allowed on 1 April 2005 - picked up International Deal Team of the Year for its work on the Vodafone-Japan take-private transaction.

The UK firm was also recognised for its work last year on the Mitsui-EME acquisition financing (Project Finance Deal of the Year), the whole business securitisation of Tokushukai Medical Corporation (Global Hospital Limited - Securitisation Deal of the Year), and the Nikon Corporation exchangeable bonds offering (Debt and Equity-Linked Deal of the Year).

The big US law firm winners were Wall Street heavyweights Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Sullivan & Cromwell.

Each firm landed four trophies, with the judging panel deciding Simpson Thacher resident head David Sneider's work on the INPEX privatisation, the Japan Telecom sale to Softbank Corporation, the Shinsei Bank IPO, and the Elpida Memory Inc. IPO, among others, warranted the title of International Dealmaker of the Year.

This came at the expense of Sullivan & Cromwell partners John Young Jr and Izumi Akai - although Sullivan was the only firm to have two partners short-listed for the individual categories.

The energy sector was a busy one in Japan in 2004 and this was also reflected in the judges' selection of winners. In addition to Mitsui-EME acquisition financing winning Project Finance Deal of the Year (with corporate counsel at Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co., Ltd winning In-House Team of the Year), Japan's largest IPO since 1998 - the US$3.4bn IPO of Electric Power Development Co. Ltd (J-Power) - was awarded Energy & Resources Deal of the Year, while the INPEX privatisation won Equity Deal of the Year.

Other notable victories included Carlyle Group and Kyocera Corporation's buyout of DDI Pocket from KDDI Corporation (which was one of Japan's largest leveraged buyouts and won M&A Deal of the Year), Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu partner Hidetaka Mihara winning Japanese Dealmaker of the Year, while Morgan Stanley and Nomura Securities picked up International and Japanese Investment Bank Teams of the Year, respectively.

"The year 2004 was truly a banner year for the leading commercial law firms in Japan, with a spate of equity offerings and a number of landmark mergers and acquisitions giving cause for optimism," said Stephen Mulrenan, executive editor of the ALB stable of magazines. "The constant deal flow included a range of high level mandates, which in turn has led firms to enhance further their transactional capabilities for the coming year."

An independent panel of seven judges was responsible for deciding the winners from the deals that were short-listed, with the winners being kept a closely guarded secret until the actual presentation on the night.

The ALB Deals of the Year Awards Japan is part of a regional series of award evenings that will culminate in an Asia-Pacific event to be held in Hong Kong. Other ALB Deals of the Year Awards covered legal work in China (hosted in Beijing), SE Asia (Singapore) and Australasia (Melbourne).

Nomination criteria
The ALB editorial and management team defined four criteria for judging the overall excellence of any given deal:

Size: the financial value of the deal and the quantity of legal work involved

Complexity: the degree to which advanced legal and financial techniques and structures have been applied to the deal

Breadth: the degree to which the deal spanned jurisdictions, practice areas, parties and industries

Innovation: the degree to which the deal involved groundbreaking, original legal techniques and structures

* The work of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune has been recognised through the legacy firms of Anderson Mori and Tomotsune & Kimura

For photos or further details, please contact Stephen Mulrenan at stephen.mulrenan@keymedia.com.au or on DD: (61 2) 8437 4702

For a list of all the finalists and categories please visit www.albawards.com/japan

The full list of winners:

Real Estate Deal of the Year - Japan Retail Fund global equity offering

Energy & Resources Deal of the Year - J-Power privatisation and IPO

Telecommunications Deal of the Year - Vodafone Japan take-private

Media & Entertainment Deal of the Year - Reuters - QUICK share acquisition

Technology Deal of the Year - Elpida Memory Inc. IPO

Insolvency & Restructuring Deal of the Year - Jinro (HK) International Limited

Project Finance Deal of the Year - Mitsui-EME acquisition financing

Structured Finance Deal of the Year - Nomura Singapore - Japanese-Korean CBO

Securitisation Deal of the Year - Global Hospital Limited

Debt (and Equity-Linked) Deal of the Year - Nikon Corp exchangeable bonds offering

Equity Deal of the Year - INPEX privatisation

M&A Deal of the Year - Carlyle-DDI Pocket

International Investment Bank Team of the Year - Morgan Stanley Japan Limited

Japanese Investment Bank Team of the Year - Nomura Securities

In-House Deal Team of the Year - Mitsui & Co Ltd

International Deal Team of the Year - Linklaters

Japanese Deal Team of the Year - Anderson Mori (now Anderson Mori & Tomotsune)

International Dealmaker of the Year - David Sneider - Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Japanese Dealmaker of the Year - Hidetaka Mihara - Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu

Japan Deal of the Year - Vodafone Japan take-private