Review of Attorney Kosuke Oie, LPA Tokyo law firm / 尾家康介弁護士（LPA Tokyo) について

I am writing this to as a warning on Attorney Kosuke Oie, of the law firm LPA Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan.

1 Lack of business knowledge
Oie lacks a basic understanding of business which makes him ineffective as a business lawyer. I found he had a poor understanding of contracts and the relationships between entities. I will elaborate below, but he also lacks basic business manners. Though currently at LPA, Oie spent a decade as a civil lawyer focusing on human rights. His simply lack the level of experience that a lawyer focused on business cases from the start has, and this clearly shows in how he acts. In my opinion he is sufficient as an associate or a helper but certainly insufficient as a main legal lead in any case involving a corporation.

2 Lack of professionalism
Oie would often interpret a law a certain way, then a mere 20 minutes later, denied he had done so. He also would quote a statement from an opposing attorney, and then the next day deny the attorney had made the statement. He could have explained that he’d forgotten specifics of the conversation, or that he had misspoken, but instead he constantly attempted to manipulate me into believing I had misheard or had imagined the whole discussion. This became so frequent that I began recording our meetings, to protect myself and make Oie acknowledge his own statements.
Becoming increasingly concerned about his lack of professionalism, I inquired what his area of expertise is in LPA. Oie refused to explain, saying “lawyers are prohibited from telling clients about what types of cases they have handled, such as divorce or inheritances, even in generic terms". This is false - attorney-client privileges pertain to individual cases and not general information. Clients have the right and the expectation to know what their attorney’s area of expertise is.

3 Passive-Aggressiveness
When perusing the website of LPA, I noticed that the firm lists Japan Coordinator of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) on its official website as an organization that a specific associate is affiliated with. Prior to coming to Japan, I was aware of this organization association with its Marco Rubio, its USA Chair. Marco is infamous in the US for his long history of derogatory and racist remarks and policies against minorities and immigrants. Below are some examples:
·       CNN: “Immigration protesters disrupt Marco Rubio during poverty forum, saying he does not represent us”.
·      The New Republic: “Why the Right Can’t Quit Its Antisemitic Attacks Against George Soros” - Marco Rubio’s antisemitic remarks and conspiracy theories of how the Jews control the world.
·      CBS: Marco Rubio says Trump remark on immigrants "poisoning the blood" of U.S. wasn't about race.
·     CNN: “‘I will on my first day in office get rid of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
·       Bloomberg: “Marco Rubio Rules Out Path to Citizenship During His Presidency”.
·        Miami Herald: “Sen. Marco Rubio became one of the first prominent lawmakers to publicly back President Donald Trump’s bid to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.” 

I casually mentioned Marco Rubio and the organization he chairs, IPAC, to Oie, and asked if the firm is aware of Marco’s history of anti-minority and anti-immigrant stances. I was surprised because Oie suddenly became verbally aggressive, and claimed that I should not look at his firm’s website, if the organization bothers me (this is ridiculous because information on the firm’s website is there for clients to view). He mentioned that he sees nothing wrong with Rubio or his racist policies. He became threatening, saying “If you don’t like it, you can quit!” and "If you bring up this matter more, I am not going to listen to you anymore about your case!”.

4 Gaslighting
The ongoing pressure of my case had caused debilitating stress. I had developed severe eye pain, and over a short period of time, the pain progressed, becoming particularly uncomfortable in the evening. Meetings with Oie were often scheduled in the evening. When I explained my discomfort during the meeting, Whenever this happened, Oie completely ignored my discomfort, never acknowledging or making an empathetic mention of my physical pain. He often stalled answering my emails to set up meetings at a more reasonable time and did not respond for days at a time, so that my case was delayed.

Because Oie’s antagonistic tone and attitude was interfering with the case’s progress, I suggested I add a second attorney to the case to defuse the unpleasantness of interacting with Oie. Oie agreed with this suggestion, and offered to search for and vet the second attorney. In my spare time, I spent time searching for attorneys and contacted Oie to follow up on his progress. However, Oie did not do what he had offered to do and ignored my follow-ups for months, which further significantly delayed my legal case.
Eventually, Oie fired himself from continuing as my attorney. After Oie quit, it remained necessary for him to communicate with me for a time about administrative matters. Interestingly, as soon as he quit, his demeanor extremely polite, saying “How are you feeling?”; expressing sympathy for my eye conditions, and saying other niceties. This insincere and duplicitous gesture showed that previously, he had intentionally caused me discomfort, in an attempt to make me so uncomfortable that I would fire him.
 
5 Hypocrisy
Oie, in his pre-LPA role as the former President of the Lawyers for Foreigner’s Rights Association of Japan, and in his published decries over the mistreatment of immigrants, claimed to take stance against racism, support equal rights and treatment of all people, and take a stance against discrimination based on nationality, language, gender, age, or beliefs. However, he is a hypocrite who claims to support minorities and treat them with respect and dignity, yet in reality treats his actual minority client poorly, with passive aggressiveness, verbal threats, and gaslighting.
 
6 Conclusion
Potential clients should know that if any issue comes up with your working relationship with Oie, 1) he will routinely refuse to discuss issues and you cannot expect him to have a honest and mature discussion; 2) he will play passive-aggressive games by ignoring your attempts to communicate with him, and lie and gaslight you about his own actions; and 3) regardless of how hurt you already may be from a crime you suffered in Japan, he does not hesitate to intentionally make you uncomfortable if he dislikes an issue that you bring up. His purposed stance of respecting minorities is a lie. He is a hypocrite who purports to stand for minorities but in reality, disrespects and gaslights them.

I had trusted Oie to act with integrity in my moment of vulnerability, and he broke my trust. To this day I recall with pain the frustration of working with him, the discomfort he caused, and his lack of professionalism. Because of my experience with Oie, I developed a distrust of Japanese attorneys that has not disappeared to this day. I urge all those reading this to take heed of this caution against working with Oie.