usc law family >> giving back: service to fellow trojans
Trojan Family Japanese LLM alumni support new students with guidance, activities By Carren Jao
In the Land of the Rising Sun, the Trojan spirit is alive and well thanks to a self-starting group of Japanese Gould Master of Laws alumni. Theirs are often the first faces many newly accepted LLM students from Japan see and interact with before stepping onto the USC campus. The group took shape in 2011, after USC closed its Tokyo office, and alumni realized new and prospective students needed guidance and wisdom.
Hirooka, now a partner at one of the largest law firms in Japan, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, learned the basics of setting up the sessions after volunteering to help send off a group of new LLM and MBA students in 2010. Hirooka connected with Japanese alumni including Kazuki Inoue (LLM 2010), a Japanese government official with the Legislative Bureau of the House of Representatives; Takashi Yoneyama (LLM 2009), a partner in one of the five largest firms in the country,
“ ...‘It would be nice to have some kind of gathering to send off new students, so we could share our experience — how to survive in law school, but also to welcome newly accepted students.’” — Kenji Hirooka (LLM 2004)
“Somebody said ‘It would be nice to have some kind of gathering to send off new students, so we could share our experience — how to survive in law school, but also to welcome newly accepted students.’ And so we did it,” says Kenji Hirooka (LLM 2004). The alums fielded questions about where to live, activities in Los Angeles and favorite professors, much like older siblings dispensing advice. “One of the attributes of USC that we promote to our students is the Trojan Family, so it’s wonderful to see the USC values really embodied in our Japanese alumni community,” says Sarah Gruzas, director of the Graduate & International Programs (G&IP) at USC Gould School of Law.
28
USCLaw magazine
TMI Associates; Yuichi Kono (LLM 2009), an attorney with Marubeni Corporation; and Hiro Takahashi (LLM 2015), a partner at Vasco Da Gama offices, a legal accounting firm. Together, the alums comprise a core team that organizes at least two events each year: a year-end reunion for Gould alumni following an annual G&IP information session open to all prospective Gould candidates in Japan, and a send-off party for all accepted Gould LLM students.
SHARED PLANNING AND HOSTING DUTIES BUILD COMMUNITY Given the group’s collective busy schedules, their consistency is something of a miracle. Their secret is a
