Lawyer on Air podcast

From Law as “Plan B” to Finding Peace: Embracing Ambiguity as a Global In-House Counsel in Japan with Liting Cong

14/12/2025
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44:55
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Liting Cong is Legal Counsel at ASICS, one of Japan’s most successful sportswear companies. Liting shares her journey through the lens of Japanese aesthetics, particularly the concept of wabi-sabi or embracing imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness. If you're considering an in-house career in Japan, curious about human-centric AI, or looking for wisdom on embracing life's uncertainties, you will enjoy the metaphor Liting shares about building a beautiful garden. More on that inside this episode! 

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In this episode you’ll hear:

  • How Japanese martial arts and dance became a source of peace and resilience during challenging times

  • The evolution of in-house counsel roles beyond gatekeeping and contract review

  • Practical strategies for unlearning perfectionism that Liting uses herself at work

  • Why ideation is a lawyer's secret weapon in the age of AI

  • Liting’s favourite book and other fun facts 

About Liting

Liting Cong is a Legal Counsel at ASICS Corporation, where she leads global privacy, AI governance, and digital initiatives in the Legal Department. She graduated from Grinnell College in 2011, and University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 2014. She was admitted to the bar in Ontario in 2015, and in New York in 2019. Before relocating to Japan, Liting gained diverse international experience at King & Wood in Shanghai, Shin & Kim in Seoul, and Stikeman & Elliott in Toronto, and started her own practice as a sole practitioner in Toronto.

In addition to her legal credentials, Liting is a data protection professional with multiple certifications from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) for European privacy (CIPP/E), privacy program management (CIPM), and artificial intelligence governance (AIGP). 

With over a decade of experience living and working in Canada and Japan, Liting brings not only legal expertise but also fluency in the languages--English, Chinese, and Japanese--and a deep understanding of cross-cultural business environments. 

In 2018, as an avid fan of Japanese arts and culture since childhood, Liting relocated to Japan. She joined Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation in Osaka as Legal Counsel, and later SymBio Pharmaceuticals Limited in Tokyo as Legal Manager.

In 2023, Liting joined ASICS Corporation in its global headquarters in Kobe. She now serves as the lead in global privacy and AI governance and managing ASICS’ digital initiatives across the globe. 

Liting lives in Osaka with her husband and a cat who enjoys making cameos in Teams calls and supervising all her legal work.  

Connect with Liting

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/litingcong/ 

Links

Gokan: https://patisserie-gokan.co.jp/item/ 

The Cultural Map by Erin Meyer https://amzn.asia/d/9w9muCI 

Connect with Catherine 

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair


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