Professionals

Ryutaro “Rudy” Hirota heads the firm with over 30 years of experience serving domestic and multinational clients. Rudy’s specialization is in corporate contracts, but he also has significant experience with corporate transactions, including corporate counseling, intellectual property licensing, employment law, corporate immigration, and a variety of other corporate client needs. Rudy frequently advises corporations on strategies to achieve the client’s business goals.

After graduating from U.C. Berkeley School of Law in 1989, Rudy served as a law clerk in Federal Courts, including for the 9th Circuit and for the United States Supreme Court. Following his clerkships, Rudy worked for O’Melveny and Myers for four years, where he focused on providing legal representation for Japanese corporate clients. He founded his own law office in 1997, continuing to provide service to clients who require Japanese-speaking counsel.

Due to the needs of the community, Rudy has expanded his practice from working primarily with corporate clients to serving members of the Japanese and Japanese-speaking community through providing a variety of personal legal services, including immigration law, employment law, estate planning and probate, family law, landlord-tenant law, personal injury law, and civil litigation. With the expansion of his client-base, he decided to rebrand his office as the Law Offices of Hirota and Kudo, PC in February of 2024.

Ayaka is an attorney with significant experience advising clients with their needs in immigration law, family law, and probate and estate matters. She regularly advises businesses and individuals on these and other issues.

Ayaka began her work at the then-Law Offices of Ryutaro Hirota in June of 2011 as a law clerk. Before joining the office, she gained experience in immigration law, business transactions, and human rights issues through various internships. After becoming an associate attorney in December of 2012, she has provided legal services to our clients for the past 10+ years.

During law school, Ayaka interned with an immigration law firm where she handled issues related to humanitarian parole and waiver of inadmissibility, and prepared various immigrant and non-immigrant visa applications. Ayaka also worked with foster children and human rights organizations to draft a foster care guideline for the Karnataka state government during her internship in Bangalore, India.