Legal Services Team for Creatives
- Provides legal support for all types of risks associated with creatives -
Instead of creatives that follow the rules,
creatives that push boundaries within the rules
The widespread adoption of digital technology and the rise of AI have drastically transformed the way information flows, and the pace of these changes is only accelerating. Consequently, there is increased scrutiny on legal risks and ethical considerations in digital marketing — including advertising expressions, copyright on content, inappropriate expressions, and brand damage. However, simply complying with legal regulations can result in creatives that fail to resonate, while being too aggressive risks running into legal issues. Creating expressions that maximize brand value while minimizing legal risks requires both expertise in creatives and legal expertise.
What is the legal team for creatives that maximizes brand value while minimizing legal risks?
We established our legal services team for creatives in 2023 to reassure clients that they can entrust their marketing initiatives to us without legal concerns. With this team, we have built mechanisms to identify any potential legal risks in creatives.At the same time, drawing on our knowledge and practical experience gained on the production frontlines in various creative fields, we propose ideas for creatives that push expressions within the bounds of legal precedents. This is how we realize expressions that maximize brand value while minimizing legal risks.
What is a lawyer specializing in creatives?
A lawyer specializing in creatives is a highly specialized attorney who provides robust legal support so that creators and creative companies can focus on their creative activities with peace of mind. In the overseas entertainment industry, companies employ lawyers specializing in creatives who play a role in contract negotiations and providing legal guidance on creative works. In this field, experience is everything, because the position requires not only an understanding of and knowledge about creatives but also long-term experience in production environments and deep legal expertise.
Hakuhodo DY ONE’s legal services team for creatives
Sophisticated legal reviews that encompass domestic and international laws and regulations
At Hakuhodo DY ONE, we not only verify advertising expressions from a legal perspective but also conduct comprehensive risk assessments regarding intellectual property and AI usage. We have established a system in which we collaborate with outside legal counsel to protect businesses from legal risks, including handling advanced legal judgments as needed. We constantly monitor the latest regulatory trends in Japan and around the world, providing appropriate legal reviews tailored to each market. Because our system can handle even the EU’s rigorous advertising regulations, clients considering expansion into overseas markets can consult with us with confidence.
Proposals for flexible alternatives suited to actual circumstances
Our legal services team for creatives does far more than judge whether a specific piece of content is legally inappropriate or not. The team looks for ways to express the same idea within legal interpretations. As an advertising agency, we work alongside creative production teams to explore the maximum allowable expressions within legal frameworks while avoiding risks, with the end goal of supporting the business growth of our clients.
Establish AI usage guidelines to ensure transparency and trust
As generative AI becomes commonplace, addressing copyright and ethical issues requires an increasingly cautious and strategic approach. Our legal team for creatives scrutinizes intellectual property risks and ethical issues associated with AI-generated content. And in collaboration with our AI Strategy Development Office, the team has developed and implemented guidelines to ensure creative production teams can utilize AI with confidence. Moreover, the team continuously studies the latest case law and regulatory trends in the U.S. and Europe to help our clients mitigate risks when rolling out advertising materials globally.
- * Our legal services team for creatives is a hybrid system with risk assessments and advice from our in-house legal department with collaboration that brings in outside attorneys (specializing in Japanese and international law) as needed. Legal advice and consultations requiring judicial or attorney qualifications are always handled by our partner attorneys.
Our legal services team for creatives pushes boundaries within the rules
At Hakuhodo DY ONE, executives with experience as lawyers dealing with creatives manage risks associated with creatives. We have further strengthened our capabilities by partnering with the GVA Professional Group. By working as a single team with practicing attorneys, we conduct highly sophisticated and rigorous legal reviews.
Meet the members of our legal services team for creatives
Executive, Creative Legal Services
Masanori Fujii
Fujii worked for a major European film distribution company for 13 years, where he handled both external relations and contract law in film production, distribution, and TV commercial production settings. Working in a multilingual environment and under differing business customs as an attorney of the French Bar (and as a European attorney / French-English, French-German), he gained experience as a lawyer dealing with creatives who continually pushed for the very best solutions. After working at a law firm in Tokyo from 2019 to 2021, he joined IREP (now Hakuhodo DY ONE) in 2022 and established the legal services team for creatives. Currently, Fujii serves as a legal specialist handling advertising and contract matters for our company across multiple languages and jurisdictions, including contracts in Japanese, English, and Chinese (under U.S. state laws, Chinese law, English law, and others).
Attorney (Japanese law), Creative Legal Services
Tomohisa Hayasaki
After gaining experience in general legal practice at a major regional law firm, Hayasaki joined the GVA Professional Group in 2018. There, he handled a wide range of matters, including general corporate, finance, and business legal design for startups and new business initiatives by listed companies. He assisted with service expansions and numerous IPOs and M&A transactions. His areas of expertise include medical-related laws such as the Medical Care Act, the Medical Practitioners Act, and the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Act, as well as marketing law covering medical advertising, pharmaceutical and medical device advertising, and the Act Against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations. He served as a partner at the GVA Professional Group starting in 2023. In 2025, Hayasaki joined Hakuhodo DY ONE, where he works alongside Fujii to oversee the legal services team for creatives and the promotion of MAESTRO.
