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BU Law Alumnus
Sets Sights on Japan
Robert Grondine (’80) has come a long way from the small town of Oxford, Mass.,
where he grew up. “Nobody around there does or even imagines doing this kind of
work,” says Grondine, a senior partner at White & Case LLP’s Tokyo office. “It seems
normal to those of us in international legal practice, but in the greater realm of people
out there, they’re surprised. They ask, ‘How did you get there’”
How he got there is a topic Grondine warms to
quickly when mentoring young attorneys and, as
he did last October at BU Law, addressing students
interested in pursuing international law. Grondine
says he knew from an early age both that he wanted
to be an attorney and that he wanted to travel. “My
siblings always accuse me of being the one with the
plan,” he laughs.
As an undergraduate at Dartmouth, he set his sights
on Japan after an advisor cautioned him to avoid
competition by searching out the unusual. At the
time only about 3,000 Americans were fluent in
Japanese, so Grondine studied the language at Cornell,
then spent two years in Tokyo working as a
“salaryman,” or white-collar worker, before returning
to the United States to attend BU Law. Grondine
tells young lawyers to “look for opportunities
and plan five years out. There are many variables,
and the markets and opportunities vary over time.”
Taking his own advice has made Grondine himself
incredibly successful in his 26 years of foreign
practice, having represented clients from General
Motors to Fuji Heavy Industries to Sony Corpora-
24 | The Record | Fall 2007