Miwa Shoda 

Imagine the challenge of mastering not just one but three of the world’s most difficult bar exams in different languages. Miwa Shoda, co-chair of Jenner & Block’s Japan practice, has done just that, and today she’s a remarkable attorney bridging the gap between Japanese companies and the American legal system.

Born and raised in Japan, Shoda’s journey to success is a story of determination, resilience and adaptability.

She started with a dream of working at the United Nations, but life had other plans: “I went to the University of Tokyo. I wanted to work at the United Nations at first,” she said. “But once I began studying, my outlook changed, and I decided to become an attorney.”

Undeterred by Japan’s Bar Exam’s meager 2.5% average passing rate, Shoda persevered and passed the rigorous test, kick-starting her career at one of Japan’s premier law firms. But her ambition didn’t stop there — with the support of her firm, Miwa ventured to the United States to pursue her LL.M degree.

Shoda faced the challenge of not only learning an entirely new legal system but doing so in a second language. Proving her mettle, she passed both the California and New York bar exams, making a groundbreaking transition from a visiting attorney to an associate and, ultimately, a partner of an AM Law 100 firm.

Since joining Jenner & Block, Shoda has created a practice representing multibillion-dollar industries in Japan from litigation to transaction matters. She and her partner Julie Shepard recently represented Rakuten in a high-profile dispute against multiple production companies and two individuals, Rakuten, Inc. v. The H Collective, Inc., 21STCV04527 (L.A. Super., filed Feb. 4, 2021).

In Los Angeles County Superior Court, Rakuten sued the production companies and the individuals, alleging they misrepresented their rights to a film franchise, among other claims. The court awarded Rakuten $52.5 million, including full recovery of its investment, prejudgment interest, and attorneys’ fees, as well as $25 million in punitive damages.

Shoda’s tenacity and strategic thinking were on full display during the case: “The defendants claimed that they were the movie producers, and they wanted to invest some big money into the production, and then these movies never happened. They took obvious stalling tactics in the litigation, changing counsel three times over the course of one year and arguing they needed more time each time, and they ignored multiple court orders in the end,” Shoda said. “Our strategy was to create and accumulate records of their non-compliance of various court orders to ask the judge to issue sanctions and then eventually the punitive damages. It worked.”

— Douglas Saunders