Legal Editor

Job Description

As Legal Editor at Thomson Reuters, you will help build Westlaw Japan, a comprehensive online legal research service for Japanese law. You will collect, analyze, and edit legal information, such as statutes, case law, legal articles, and legal news, and link related information on the database so that its users can find what they need quickly and accurately. This role lets you apply your legal knowledge and editorial expertise to contribute directly to the growth of our products.

Key Responsibilities:

In this opportunity as a Legal Editor, you will: 

• Editing of Database: Collecting, selecting, editing, updating, and otherwise maintaining legal information contained in the database, such as statutes, case law, e-books, law journals, legal articles, and legal news.
• Enhancement of Content Value: Classifying and organizing the information contained therein, linking related information, adding metadata that improves search, and otherwise improving the database to make it easier to use.
• Management of Quality: Ensuring the integrity of the database by reviewing its content prior to publication, implementing our quality standards, and continuously improving them.
• Collaboration with Authors and Vendors: Collaborating with a diverse range of authoring practitioners, such as lawyers and academics, external editors, professional bodies, and government agencies, and ensuring a comprehensive approach to managing content and manuscripts.
• Management of Projects: Leading assigned projects and ensuring the quality of work delivered by external authoring practitioners.
• Process Improvement and Use of Generative AI: Contributing to improving editorial systems, standardizing procedures, and increasing efficiency with generative AI tools, with all AI outputs reviewed by trained personnel to ensure legal accuracy and compliance with our policies.
• Contribution to Development of New Content: Applying an editorial perspective to the development of content for new products and the enhancement of existing products.
• Collaboration Across Teams: Collaborating closely with the product, technology, sales, and overseas editorial teams to enhance the quality of content by responding to customer feedback.

Required Qualifications:

You’re a fit for the role of Legal Editor if you have the following required qualifications: 

• A law degree, or equivalent legal knowledge gained through legal practice or legal editing.
• The ability to accurately interpret the structure of statutes and case law.
• Japanese proficiency, sufficient to read, interpret, and edit Japanese statutes, case law, and legal commentary.
• Excellent writing and proofreading skills in Japanese.
• Strong communication skills to earn the trust of everyone involved, with clear and consistent reporting and follow-up.
• The ability to pay close attention to detail and to meet deadlines.
• English language skills at a conversational level that is sufficient for email correspondence and participation in meetings with overseas teams.
• Fundamental computer skills, including proficiency in editorial systems and the use of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• A positive attitude toward the adoption of new tools and technologies, such as generative AI.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• A Juris Doctor (JD) from a Japanese law school, or a master's degree or higher in law.
• Legal qualifications, such as passing the Japanese bar examination or registration as a judicial scrivener, administrative scrivener, or patent attorney.
• Editing experience at a legal publisher or legal information service company.
• Experience commissioning content and collaboration with external practitioners, professional bodies, and government agencies.
• Proficiency in the management of structured documents, such as XML, and the development of classification systems using fundamental programming knowledge.
• Proficiency in leveraging generative AI tools for editorial operations.
• Experience managing competing priorities and resolving editorial issues under publication deadlines.

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What’s in it For You?

About Us

Thomson Reuters informs the way forward by bringing together the trusted content and technology that people and organizations need to make the right decisions. We serve professionals across legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media. Our products combine highly specialized software and insights to empower professionals with the data, intelligence, and solutions needed to make informed decisions, and to help institutions in their pursuit of justice, truth, and transparency. Reuters, part of Thomson Reuters, is a world leading provider of trusted journalism and news.

We are powered by the talents of 26,000 employees across more than 70 countries, where everyone has a chance to contribute and grow professionally in flexible work environments. At a time when objectivity, accuracy, fairness, and transparency are under attack, we consider it our duty to pursue them. Sound exciting? Join us and help shape the industries that move society forward.

As a global business, we rely on the unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of all employees to deliver on our business goals. To ensure we can do that, we seek talented, qualified employees in all our operations around the world regardless of race, color, sex/gender, including pregnancy, gender identity and expression, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, citizen status, veteran status, or any other protected classification under applicable law. Thomson Reuters is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer providing a drug-free workplace.

We also make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law. More information on requesting an accommodation here.

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More information about Thomson Reuters can be found on thomsonreuters.com.