S Mcintire Allen

S. (Steven) McIntire Allen, or Mak, short for McIntire, was born in Yangon, Myanmar (then Rangoon, Burma) in 1963. He graduated from school in Western New York. After college, he bought a motorcycle, and drove across country to work at the Alta ski resort in Utah. He toured the Western United States on his motorcycle, and eventually went to work in Europe in 1987.  He worked as a ski guide at the Sankt Anton am Arlberg Ski Resort in Austria, and taught water skiing on the island of Skiathos in Greece. He also worked as a motorcycle courier in London, an assembly line worker in Sweden, and a migrant laborer in Spain.

After returning to the United States, he worked on a historical vessel, a 1920s Grand Banks Schooner, sailing around the Caribbean. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that he had to get a real job. However, he enjoyed interacting with different cultures and peoples, so to continue the international aspect of his career, his parents suggested studying a foreign language, specifically Japanese. He telephoned a number he had been told was the American Bar Association office for counseling careers, and the person on the other end of the phone also recommended Japanese as the language most in demand in the legal industry.

He began studying Japanese as a non-matriculating student, and continued to study Japanese after entering the University of Connecticut School of Law.  At the time he entered law school, people began calling him Mak, rather than Steve.

After his first year of law school, he took a leave of absence to spend a year teaching on the JET Program in 1993-1994 at a girl's high school in Ishinomaki, Miyagi.  Spring vacation of that year was spent hitchhiking around Southeast Asia, and visiting family friends in Yangon. Unfortunately, if he had spent more than one year away from law school, he would have had to repeat his first year of law school, so he went back for a semester of law school in Connecticut, and then returned to Japan for a semester at Temple University Japan Campus School of Law in Takadanobaba, Tokyo in 1995. That summer, he worked at a think tank in Akasaka Mituske, Tokyo.

After graduating from law school in 1996, he moved to New York City, and sat for the New York Bar. He worked as a contract attorney for White & Case, and then moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to work for Square USA (now Square-Enix, creators of Final Fantasy). He sat for the California Bar, and in 2001 he moved to Tokyo to work for Asahi Law Offices (now Nishimura & Asahi). In 2005, he moved to Osaka to work for Osaka International Law Offices.  For a more detailed curriculum vitae, see his LinkedIn profile.

His middle name is his maternal grandfather's family name. This grandfather, Sidney Chester McIntire, was born McIntyre, but changed the “y” to “i" in law school in Boston before being called to the Massachusetts Bar in 1918, and later practicing law in Honolulu for many years.  According to DNA and genealogy research, Sidney's grandmother was Ashkenazi.  Her family name was probably Anglicized to Evans when emigrating to Halifax, Nova Scotia beforeher birth in 1834.  One version of the MacIntyre family crest appears to the left.

Mr. Allen's paternal grandfather, Harold Brainard Allen, was a Michigan attorney and served as General Counsel and Secretary on the Board of Directors at the Upjohn Company from 1949 to 1962.  The Upjohn Company was “one of the largest ethical drug manufacturers in the United States”.  Harold Allen was also active in many social causes, such as being one of the founding members of the local NAACP Chapter, and starting the first Goodwill Store in Kalamazoo.

Mr. Allen uses a legally registered Japanese alias: Masahisa MINAMOTO. Minamoto is a family name with some history in Japan. Masahisa is a play on his nickname Mak, since the ideographic characters for Masahisa may also be read in a manner that somewhat approximates the way Mak is pronounced in Japanese.

Mr. Allen is married to Kanako Allen nee Yoshida.  They have a daughter whose American name is Skye Maka Intireina Allen.  Intireina is the matronymic equivalent of McIntire.  The ideographic characters for his daughter’s Japanese name, Maka, mean The Essence of Contentment.  They live in central Osaka.

Positions currently held by S. McIntire Allen:

Brighton High School Class Contact for Class of 1981

Chair of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program(me) Alumni Association of Western Japan (JETAAWJ).

Member of the Board of Directors of Animal Refuge Kansai (ARK)

Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association: Section of International Law: Asia/Pacific Committee

Member of the

    California Bar License #210750 & 

    New York Bar License #2785913

CLE Coordinator of the Japan Law Society

Past postions:

Member of the Board of Directors of the Japan Society of Connecticut

Officer of the Japanese Chapter of Toastmasters in New York City

Social Welfare Committee Member of the New York City Bar Association

Member of The Japanese American Bar Association of Greater Los Angeles

Contact:

Voice/video:

Gchat:

Skype:

iChat

Mobile:

Within Japan: (090) 5469-7675

Internationally: +81-90-5469-7675

Home: note: if you telephone his home, please speak Japanese.

Within Japan: (06) 6131-6347

Internationally: +81-6-6131-6347