Dentsu Wins “In-house: Innovation in People & Skills” Award at the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific 2026 Awards

- Recognized for Developing Legal Talent for the AI Era -

Dentsu (Headquarters: Dentsu Group Inc.; Location: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & Global CEO: Takeshi Sano) has won the “In-house: Innovation in People & Skills” award for innovative initiatives in talent development and organizational capability building, at the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific 2026 Awards^* which recognize innovative law firms, lawyers, and in-house legal teams across the Asia-Pacific region. 

At dentsu, AI is being implemented to enhance the value delivered to clients, while its effective adoption is also being actively promoted across the Group. As part of these efforts, the “In-house: Innovation in People & Skills” award recognized the advanced talent development and organizational capability-building initiatives led by the dentsu APAC Legal & Compliance team.
The team has been pursuing a dual-track approach: building advanced expertise in the use of and company wide deployment of AI while fostering the soft skills that are becoming increasingly important in the generative AI era. In particular, the team focuses on developing capabilities such as resilience, adaptability, humility, empathy, strategy, and business acumen, with the goal of becoming a more valuable strategic partner to clients. In addition, they have implemented a future-oriented capability development model through continuous improvement initiatives incorporating feedback from business teams, cross-market projects that promote knowledge sharing, and individual development plans tailored to each team member’s growth objectives.

Sharan Jaswal, General Counsel, dentsu APAC, commented:
“In today’s rapidly changing environment, new regulations are constantly being introduced across different countries and jurisdictions, requiring corporate legal and compliance teams to understand and respond to them quickly and effectively. Against this backdrop, we have focused on developing legal talent from two perspectives: the ability to leverage technology and utilize the uniquely human capabilities that are becoming increasingly important. We see this award as recognition of these forward-looking efforts to build the legal function of the future.”

Dentsu will continue to invest in the development of the next generation of in-house lawyers and contribute to the sustainable growth of the Group through the advancement of legal and compliance functions that help lead transformation.

* The FT Innovative Lawyers Asia-Pacific Awards 2026 is an awards program organized by the Financial Times and its research partner, RSGI, to recognize innovative legal work across the Asia-Pacific region. The awards honor not only law firms but also corporate legal departments (in-house legal teams) and are widely regarded as one of the legal profession’s most prestigious recognition programs. The 2026 awards ceremony was held in Hong Kong on May 14, 2026, recognizing leading examples of innovation from law firms and in-house legal teams across the region. please see the below website for details.
https://www.ft.com/content/0a375620-99f1-4372-8d61-5ff2f6087386

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Contact:
Jumpei Kojima, Akiko Shimadzu, Emi Harada
Group Corporate Communications Office, Dentsu Group Inc.
Email: group-cc@dentsu.com