Principles of Practice
What We Believe Makes Legal Advice Worth Having
The approach taken in any advisory engagement follows from a set of underlying positions about what advice is for and what it should produce. These are set out here plainly.
Return to Home§ 01
Our Foundation
Legal advice is most useful when it is grounded in what is actually written rather than what the client recalls or hopes is there. This is not a critical position towards clients — memory is imperfect and the inclination to present one's own situation favourably is natural. It is simply a recognition that the documents determine what is possible, and that advice must begin there.
The work at Sadame follows from this position. Every engagement starts with the documents submitted, not with the account given. What follows from that review is an honest written assessment — not a confirmation of the position the client arrived with, but an accurate account of what the documents support.
§ 02
Philosophy and Vision
The purpose of legal advice is to give the person receiving it a clearer picture of what their situation actually is, what options are available, and what each of those options involves. It is not to provide reassurance, to confirm a preferred reading, or to build a case around a conclusion that has already been reached.
The vision behind the work here is straightforward: that companies operating in Japan and working in English should be able to obtain substantive, written legal analysis on employment, commercial and debt matters without the uncertainty of hourly billing and without receiving advice in a language they must then translate internally.
Advice that is honest, written, and fixed in cost is more useful than advice that is optimistic, verbal, and open-ended. That is the position this practice works from.
§ 03
Core Beliefs
Belief 01
Documents determine what is possible
Whatever the client believes is the case, the contract, correspondence, or invoice is what determines the actual legal position. Beginning with the documents is not optional — it is how advice becomes reliable.
Belief 02
Written output is more useful than verbal advice
Advice received in a meeting and reconstructed from memory afterward introduces errors that compound over time. A written assessment is what was said — it can be read again, shared, and referred to as the situation develops.
Belief 03
Weaknesses are part of the picture
Advice that addresses only the strengths of a position leaves the client unprepared for the response they will receive from the other party. An assessment that identifies weaknesses gives a more accurate picture and makes better decisions possible.
Belief 04
Known cost is preferable to open-ended billing
A fixed fee stated at the outset allows a company to weigh the cost of the engagement against the value of the output before committing. Hourly billing with an uncertain ceiling makes that assessment impossible.
Belief 05
Some matters are better left alone
Recovery costs sometimes exceed the sum owed. Litigation sometimes costs more than the value of the outcome. Part of what a reliable assessment does is identify when the better course is to accept a loss rather than pursue a remedy.
Belief 06
Language should not be a practical barrier
For companies whose working language is English, receiving advice in Japanese and then translating it internally introduces delay and the possibility of error. The advice here is delivered in English throughout.
§ 04
Principles in Practice
Every engagement begins with document review
Before any position is formed, the relevant documents are examined — the employment contract, the commercial agreement, the invoice and associated correspondence. The review comes first.
The written assessment states what was found
The output is a written document that describes the position as the review found it — including provisions that are weak, positions that are unlikely to hold, and situations where the better course may be to take no action.
Fees are stated before work begins
Each service carries a fixed fee. The fee does not change based on what is found, how long the review takes, or how many drafts are required within the scope. It is agreed before any work begins.
Questions on the assessment are addressed
The engagement does not end at delivery of the written assessment. Questions about what is written can be raised and addressed as part of the same engagement.
§ 05
The Person Behind the Matter
Legal matters are not abstract. The employment contract under review was written by people working under time pressure and may reflect decisions that made sense at the time but do not hold up well now. The commercial dispute involves a relationship that probably had value before things went wrong. The unpaid invoice represents work already delivered.
The advisory work here takes that context seriously. The written assessment is not a detached analysis. It is addressed to the people who will read it and act on it, and it is written to be understood by a non-lawyer working inside a business — not just by someone who shares the same technical vocabulary.
This is why the output is in English, in plain language where plain language is adequate, and with explanation where technical terms need to be used.
§ 06
Deliberate Choices, Not Default Practice
The structure of the services here — fixed fees, defined scopes, written output, English language — is not simply how this practice happens to work. Each element reflects a considered decision about what makes legal advice more or less useful to the people receiving it.
Hourly billing, for example, is the default in most legal practices because it is simpler to administer. It is not the approach used here because it places the cost risk on the client and makes the value of the engagement difficult to assess in advance.
Written output is more work to produce than verbal advice. It is also more useful. The choice to deliver every engagement in writing reflects that position.
§ 07
Integrity and Transparency
On fees
The fee for each service is published and does not change. There are no additional charges for revisions within scope, for time taken beyond an estimate, or for follow-on questions about the written assessment.
On scope
Each service has a defined scope. If a matter falls outside what is offered, that is said at the point of initial contact rather than discovered after work has begun.
On outcomes
No outcome is guaranteed. The assessment describes what the documents support and what options are available. Whether a matter succeeds depends on factors outside the assessment — including the other party's response and the decisions the client makes.
On limitations
There are matters outside the services offered here — court representation, notarial work, family law, immigration. If contact is made about a matter of that kind, that will be said directly.
§ 08
Working With Clients
The work here is collaborative in a specific sense: it requires the client to provide the actual documents rather than a summary of them, to allow the review to proceed from what is written rather than from what is hoped, and to receive an honest assessment rather than a preferred one.
In return, the assessment is complete and written, the fee does not change, and questions arising from the written output are addressed as part of the same engagement. This is what working together looks like here.
§ 09
Beyond the Immediate Question
Employment documentation reviewed now may need to be revised again as the company grows. A position assessment in a current dispute becomes a reference point if a related matter arises later. Knowing that a debt is not economically recoverable is more useful than pursuing it and learning the same thing after the costs have been spent.
The written format of the work here is part of this longer view. A document that accurately records the state of a legal matter at a given point in time has uses beyond the decision being made right now. That is one of the reasons the work is delivered in writing.
§ 10
What This Means in Practice for You
You can expect
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A written assessment delivered within the timeframe agreed at the start
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An assessment that states weaknesses as well as strengths, so the picture is accurate
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A fixed fee that does not change based on what is found
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Engagement entirely in English, with no need for internal translation
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A direct answer at the point of contact if the matter falls outside what is offered here
§ 11
If This Approach Fits What You Need
Contact us through the form on the home page to describe the matter briefly. The initial reply will confirm whether what you need falls within what is offered here. There is no charge for that exchange.