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.
#LI-SC1
What’s in it For You?
Hybrid Work Model: We’ve adopted a flexible hybrid working environment (2-3 days a week in the office depending on the role) for our office-based roles while delivering a seamless experience that is digitally and physically connected.
Flexibility & Work-Life Balance: Flex My Way is a set of supportive workplace policies designed to help manage personal and professional responsibilities, whether caring for family, giving back to the community, or finding time to refresh and reset. This builds upon our flexible work arrangements, including work from anywhere for up to 8 weeks per year, empowering employees to achieve a better work-life balance.
Career Development and Growth: By fostering a culture of continuous learning and skill development, we prepare our talent to tackle tomorrow’s challenges and deliver real-world solutions. Our Grow My Way programming and skills-first approach ensures you have the tools and knowledge to grow, lead, and thrive in an AI-enabled future.
Industry Competitive Benefits: We offer comprehensive benefit plans to include flexible vacation, two company-wide Mental Health Days off, access to the Headspace app, retirement savings, tuition reimbursement, employee incentive programs, and resources for mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.
Culture: Globally recognized, award-winning reputation for inclusion and belonging, flexibility, work-life balance, and more. We live by our values: Obsess over our Customers, Compete to Win, Challenge (Y)our Thinking, Act Fast / Learn Fast, and Stronger Together.
Social Impact: Make an impact in your community with our Social Impact Institute. We offer employees two paid volunteer days off annually and opportunities to get involved with pro-bono consulting projects and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.
Making a Real-World Impact: We are one of the few companies globally that helps its customers pursue justice, truth, and transparency. Together, with the professionals and institutions we serve, we help uphold the rule of law, turn the wheels of commerce, catch bad actors, report the facts, and provide trusted, unbiased information to people all over the world.
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.
Learn more on how to protect yourself from fraudulent job postings here.
More information about Thomson Reuters can be found on thomsonreuters.com.
Skills Required
- Law degree or equivalent legal knowledge gained through legal practice or legal editing
- 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, including clear and consistent reporting and follow-up
- Strong attention to detail and ability to meet deadlines
- Conversational English sufficient for email correspondence and meetings with overseas teams
- Fundamental computer skills, including editorial systems and Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
- Positive attitude toward adopting new tools and technologies, including generative AI
- Juris Doctor from a Japanese law school or master's degree or higher in law
- Legal qualification 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 collaborating with external practitioners, professional bodies, and government agencies
- Proficiency managing structured documents such as XML and developing classification systems using fundamental programming knowledge
- Proficiency leveraging generative AI tools for editorial operations
- Experience managing competing priorities and resolving editorial issues under publication deadlines
Thomson Reuters Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Thomson Reuters and has not been reviewed or approved by Thomson Reuters.
-
Flexible Benefits — Flexible work options such as hybrid schedules and “Flex My Way” with Work From Anywhere allowances (including limited weeks abroad) are offered and positioned to support work-life balance. Feedback suggests policy-backed flexibility is a notable strength even though application can vary by role and manager.
-
Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous paid time off, enhanced bereavement, caregiver leave, two global mental-health days, and a sabbatical program expand time-away options. Paid parental leave is explicitly highlighted, with a global minimum described at 16 weeks.
-
Healthcare Strength — Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage is paired with wellbeing resources such as EAP, mental-health tools, and fitness/wellbeing programs. FSAs/HSAs and related health benefits reinforce the depth of the healthcare offering.
Thomson Reuters Insights
What We Do
Thomson Reuters (NYSE / TSX: TRI) informs the way forward by bringing together the trusted content and technology that people and organizations need to make the right decisions. The company serves professionals across legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media. Its 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. For more information, visit tr.com.
.png)
