Megumi Soga

Megumi Honami is an Associate and practices in the firm’s Business and Commercial Law, Real Estate, and Immigration and Naturalization Practice Groups.

Megumi received a 2022 Best Lawyers: One to Watch recognition for her work in Business Organizations (including LLCs and Partnerships), Immigration Law, and Real Estate Law. She is recognized by Super Lawyers as a “Rising Star” in Business Litigation.

Megumi graduated cum laude from the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law, where she served as Senior Editor of the Asian-Pacific Law and Policy Journal, a preeminent scholarly publication concerning law and policy issues in the Asia-Pacific regions. She also served as a Teaching Assistant for Civil Procedure I, planning and conducting weekly review sessions in her second and third year of law school, as well as a Research Assistant for Professor Mark Levin, assisting with research and publication on Japanese legal issues.

While in law school, Megumi was committed to assisting both active and retired military personnel through her service as a Legal Extern for the 15WG/JA, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and participation in the “Ask-a-Lawyer” events headed by First Circuit Judge Ed Kubo. She received CALI Excellence for the Future Awards for receiving the highest score in her class in Legal Practice II, Law & Society in Japan, Asian Comparative Labor Law, and International Commercial Arbitration. She also earned a Pacific-Asian Legal Studies Certificate for completing courses focused on Japan’s legal issues as well as comparative research topics.

Megumi twice worked at Damon Key prior to joining as an Associate. She was a Summer Law Clerk in 2014 and, prior to law school, a Legal Translator and Assistant.

Born and raised in Hiroshima, Japan, Megumi speaks, reads, and writes Japanese fluently. Her professional-level Japanese oral and written communication skills were refined while working at a prominent Japanese law firm in New York City.

She is a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she obtained her bachelor’s degree with a double major in Political Science and History.

Megumi currently resides with her husband, son, and two fur babies in Honolulu and enjoys Japanese taiko drumming in her spare time.

Professional and Community Affiliations

• American Bar Association

1. International Law Section

• Hawaii State Bar Association

1. Immigration
2. International Business Law Section
3. Real Estate Section

• Honolulu Hiroshima Kenjin Kai, Director

• Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce

• Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii

• Goodwill Contract Services, Board of Directors, Secretary

Bar Admissions

• U.S. District Court (District of Hawaii)

Publications

• Co-translated with Professor Mark A. Levin a Japanese publication by former Japanese Supreme Court Justice, Justice Koji Miyakawa, Inside the Supreme Court of Japan – From the Perspective of a Former Justice.

• Authored and published How Successful is Japan’s Labor Tribunal System?: The Labor Tribunal’s Limited Scope and Effectiveness, which analyzed Japan’s recent judicial development of implementing a dispute resolution mechanism for labor and employment issues.