Eriko “Elly” Baxter l バクスター恵里子

Eriko “Elly” Baxter is an international and business lawyer who has legal experience in both the United States and Japan. Focusing on US-Japan business practice, she has given advice to US business owners in the sale of their products and services in Japan through alliance with Japanese companies. She has also assisted Japanese companies on, for example, choice of entity in the US along with immigration and tax issues. Born, raised, and having work experience in Japan, her strengths include not only her skills to navigate through legal technicalities, such as company formation and cross-border transaction agreements, but also her ability to connect two different languages and culture, leading to her clients’ success.

Elly is also passionate about empowering local businesses. She has advised Seattle-based businesses on a wide range of business matters, including employment issues, commercial lease agreements, copyright and trademark protection, change of entity structure, and dissolution. While assisting local businesses, she emphasizes her practice on IT service transactions, software licensing, and hardware sales, as she handled countless technology deals during her time as in-house counsel with IBM Japan. She also concentrates her practice on mergers and acquisitions, as her experience includes small-scale domestic and large-scale cross-border transactions, including consolidation of companies, asset purchase, sale of business, and company spin-offs.

The scale of the commercial transactions Elly has handled is up to several hundred million dollars, including but not limited to, mergers and acquisitions and technology deals. Elly has also built a great understanding of Japanese business and culture through many years of legal experience in both the US and Japan as well as her active involvement in the Japanese business community in the Seattle area. Such experience has to a great extent involved international and domestic business transactions.

Community Support

  • Aero Zypangu Project (Washington 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization) – pro bono attorney
  • Ichigo Ichie Foundation (Washington 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization) – pro bono attorney

Awards

  • President’s Award for outstanding service for the deal to provide large system services, including hardware and software, to major customers (2009).
  • Recognition by the General Counsel of IBM Corporation for work on multiple software transactions and a complex human resources case (2008).
  • Excellence in Client Service Award for support in the worldwide divestiture of IBM’s printing business (2008).
  • “Bravo!” award for work on real estate transactions, including sale of IBM Japan’s headquarters real property in the Tokyo metropolitan area (2006).

Presentations

Education

University of North Carolina School of Law, Juris Doctor

  • North Carolina Journal of International and Commercial Regulation – Staff Member

Gakushuin University (Tokyo, Japan), bachelor of law

Admissions & Memberships

Washington State Bar Association (WSBA)

North Carolina State Bar (inactive)

WSBA International Practice Section (2013-)

  • Communications Committee Chair (2013-2020)
  • Chair-elect (2020-2021)
  • Chair (2021-2022)

Seattle Select Attorneys Association (2013-2018)

  • President (2015)

Japan Business Association of Seattle (2013-2023)

  • Community Affairs Committee Member (2017-2019)
  • Business & Culture Committee Member (2020-2023)

Japan-America Society of the State of Washington (2013-)

Nichibei Women’s Network (2014-)