Jay Ponazecki, President
Jay is a partner in Morrison & Foerster's Tokyo Business Department and regularly represents American, European and Japanese high-technology companies in a broad range of international business transactions including tender offers, joint ventures and other strategic alliances, and negotiated acquisitions. Jay also assists foreign hedge funds and asset managers with their investments in Japan. She received her B.A. in political science, magna cum laude, from Barnard College and her J.D. from New York University School of Law. Jay is admitted to practice in New York. Jay first came to Japan as a high school exchange student with the American Field Service. She was seconded to Nagashima, Ohno & Tsunematsu in the early 1990s, during which time she and other foreign women lawyers formed the FWLA. She has previously served as FWLA Public Relations Chair, Treasurer and Vice President, and is currently serving her second term on the Board of Governors of The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.
Jerri Donovan, Vice President
Jerri is Chief Counsel for Wyeth K.K., the Japanese subsidiary of Wyeth, a research-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Madison, New Jersey and Collegeville, Pennsylvania. She received her undergraduate degree in Japanese history from Princeton University as a member of the last all-male class – back when Japanese was considered an esoteric language. Financially exhausted after a few years of Graduate School in Asian Studies at Columbia University, she worked for the then-Japanese National Railways in New York. She completed a J.D. at Brooklyn Law School while working for the US subsidiary of Nisshin Steel Co., Ltd. Jerri is admitted to practice in New York and Massachusetts.
Julianne Long, Co-Secretary
Julianne is an Australian lawyer from Melbourne with a long history of ties to Japan. She is currently General Counsel, Asia for Reuters, based in Tokyo, but originally came to Japan on a Monbusho scholarship some time before that. She gained a Master of Laws at Sophia University while also working part-time at what was then Hamada & Matsumoto. She has worked in private practice specialising in IP/IT at two large Australian firms, Phillips Fox and Mallesons Stephen Jaques, but then moved in-house to work as corporate counsel for the Asia-Pacific region for Blockbuster Inc., after cutting her teeth (and straining her eardrums) as in-house counsel for the Australian Grand Prix Corporation in Melbourne. Julianne is also actively involved in fostering a network for in-house counsel in Japan.
Catherine O'Connell, Co-Secretary
Catherine moved back to Tokyo in January 2008 to join the U.K. law firm Lovells. In February 2008, Catherine was seconded to the Legal Department of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and now enjoys the best of both worlds of being in house and attached to a law firm. Catherine was educated at University of Canterbury where she received a double degree in Law and Japanese. She qualified as a Barrister & Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 1995, and was in private practice with top-10 law firm Anderson Lloyd for 7 years, then departing in late 2002 to take up an In House Counsel position for Olympus Corporation in Tokyo. In 2004, Catherine transferred to west Japan, to take up the position of Senior Legal Counsel for Panasonic Electronic Devices in Osaka and was then transferred to the head office of Panasonic at the start of 2007 where she advised on a myriad of corporate legal issues, risk management and compliance.
Emmie Smith, Co-Treasurer
Emmie is currently working as a foreign attorney at Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu. She received her B.A. in Asian studies from Cornell University and her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She studied abroad in Japan during both college and law school and in 2006 returned to Japan to complete an LL.M. in transnational law from Temple University Japan. She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.
Melissa Rudd, Membership Committee
Melissa is an Australian qualified lawyer. She holds degrees in Laws (Hons) and Economics (Hons) from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Melissa worked in Melbourne as a solicitor for Australian law firm, Allens Arthur Robinson before being sent on secondment to Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu in Tokyo in 2006, where she is currently working as a foreign attorney. This is Melissa's second time around in Japan. She was first here on high school exchange in 1995.
Angela Yuen, Membership Committee
Angela is Legal Counsel for Sojitz Corporation, based in Tokyo. She is an Australian qualified lawyer admitted to practice in the Queensland Supreme Court and the High Court of Australia. Before coming to Japan two years ago, she was an associate in the Corporate Energy & Resources group at Clayton Utz, a leading Australian law firm. She holds bachelor degrees in Laws and Justice Studies (Hons) majoring in security and intelligence from the Queensland University of Technology. This is her first time living and working in Tokyo.
Sakura Hozumi, Communications
Sakura is a member of the legal team at Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim, where she leads the Legal Function Project (applying global best practices to Japan), and is responsible for knowledge management, CDAs/MTAs, contract and case management, and legal marketing/practice building. She completed her studies in international studies and comparative politics at the University of Denver and University of Paris and received a paralegal certificate from George Mason University. Having practiced corporate communications in London, New York and Tokyo, she continues expanding her postgraduate education and expertise in commercial law and arbitration.
Trea Tuck, Newsletter
Trea is an associate at Atsumi & Partners. She is admitted to practice law in Texas and holds an LL.M. in Transnational Law from Temple University and a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, summa cum laude, from the University of Texas at Arlington and a diploma in Nursing Science, with distinction, from Saint Lawrence College, Ontario, Canada. Prior to becoming an attorney, Trea practiced as a registered nurse in Critical Care and Cardiac Angioplasty. She is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society.
Judith Ravia-Hajdenberg, Career Pursuits
Judith is Corporate Advisor for Legal Affairs at Bluebell Japan, a distributor of fashion products, perfume and cosmetics. Judith and her husband have two daughters and two sons, who range in age from 10 to 2 and a half years old. After studying in Israel, where she received a BA in Political Science and Criminology from Bar-Ilan University and a diploma in business management, Judith studied law at La Sorbonne in Paris.
Sandra Cave, Co-Events Coordinator
Sandra is in her eighth year as a Legal Editor in Tokyo, prior to which she taught English for two years. She has a B.A. (Political Science) and LL.B. from the University of Tasmania. She was admitted as an Australian lawyer in late 2005 after studying on-line through the Australian National University (ANU). She is currently studying on-line for an LL.M. from the Australian National University. She enjoys travelling as much as possible, karaoke, photography, Zen meditation, writing and enjoying time with friends.
Maki Setogawa, Co-Events Coordinator
Maki is a qualified lawyer in Japan and New York. She received her LL.M. from UCLA.
She started her legal carrier at Blakemore and Mitsuki and then moved to Nagashima Ohono Tsunematsu. She became a legal counselor for Sony Computer Entertainment. Currently, Maki is a legal counselor for Google Tokyo. She has one daughter.
Laura MacKinnon, Webmaster
Laura is a graduate of the University of Toronto. She has been in Japan for several years, where she works as a corporate trainer. In her spare time, she enjoys the creative challenge of website design and the opportunity to get out with her camera.
