Morrison & Foerster
Morrison & Foerster LLP is an international law firm with 17 offices located throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. The firm has over 1,000 lawyers who advise clients across a range of industries and practices, including intellectual property, patent litigation, corporate/M&A, business restructuring, and securities.
History
School of Law graduate Alexander Francis Morrison founded the firm in 1883, in San Francisco, under the name O’Brien & Morrison. His aim was to practice "principally in the line of corporation business."In 1891, Morrison formed a partnership with Constantine E.A. Foerster. Starting in the 1920s and 1930s, the firm developed a deep client roster, which brought stability to sustain the firm over the next three decades.
In the 1960s, a group of young partners—John Austin, Dick Archer, and Bob Raven—set out to reinvigorate the firm in response to stagnant revenue and changes in the business and social environment. The strategy, resulting from the so-called "Schroeder's meetings" because they were held at the San Francisco restaurant, included ideas for modernizing the practice of law. The partners replaced outmoded policies and insisted on budgets and operational plans. The firm started to recruit at law schools and began hiring women lawyers. In time, the firm rebuilt its litigation practice by training new associates on small bank cases.
In 1974, the firm expanded outside San Francisco and opened an office in Los Angeles to better meet the needs of longtime client Crocker National Bank.
Soon after, the firm expanded again, opening an office in Washington, D.C. in 1979 and its first non-U.S. office in London in 1980.
In 1987, the firm merged with New York-based litigation company Parker Auspitz and opened its Tokyo office.
The firm merged again in 1991, this time with Ciotti & Murashige. A decade later, Morrison & Foerster became one of the largest international law firms in Tokyo when it merged with Ito & Mitomi.
In November 2013, the firm expanded its European presence by opening an office in Berlin. The following month, the German team advised Axel Springer, one of Europe's largest media companies, on its acquisition of N24 Media, Germany's largest independent producers of information.
Clients
Morrison & Foerster represents a broad cross-section of clients, including technology and life sciences, Fortune 100 companies, and financial institutions. The firm also advises startup companies and investment funds.The firm was the lead bankruptcy counsel to Residential Capital. ResCap). and secured their chapter 11 plan.
In July 2013, Morrison & Foerster represented SoftBank in its $21.6 billion acquisition of a 78 percent stake in Sprint Nextel. According to The Wall Street Journal, the transaction was "one of the most complex and unusual deals in the annals of takeovers." The firm also represented SoftBank in Alibaba's U.S. IPO—the largest IPO in history.
Pro Bono
Morrison & Foerster created a full-time pro bono counsel position.In 2014, the firm's lawyers devoted nearly 98,000 hours to pro bono work. Highlights include two appearances before the U.S. Supreme Court in the same month in cases involving reproductive rights and marriage equality.
Working in tandem with the National Center for Youth Law, the firm achieved a $2.075 million settlement for seven former foster youths who were injured while in Clark County custody. The suit was originally filed in 2010 as a class action seeking systemic changes to Clark County's child welfare system.
In 2014, the firm was successful in bringing a suit against the FBI that forced the agency to disclose information that had been improperly withheld and covered up details about its illegal surveillance of Muslim Americans in Northern California.
In New York, the firm's finance lawyers regularly participate in the Bankruptcy Assistance Project run by Legal Services NYC, which provides pre-petition assistance to low-income individuals filing chapter 7 bankruptcy petitions.
The firm also serves as pro bono counsel to numerous nonprofits, such as The Nature Conservancy.
MoFo also acted as pro bono counsel to Illuminate the Arts, which created the large-scale light installation known as The Bay Lights.
Outside the United States, the firm provides pro bono services on a range of global issues through engagements with Advocates for International Development, the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, and pro bono clearinghouses run by TrustLaw and PILnet.
In 2017, The National Law Journal named Morrison & Foerster to its 2017 Pro Bono Hot List. Morrison & Foerster was also named a 2016 Pro Bono Firm of the Year by Law360, as well as Who's Who Legal s 2015 Pro Bono Firm of the Year. In its annual pro bono survey, The American Lawyer ranked the firm in the top 10 for both U.S. and internal pro bono work for 2015.
Morrison & Foerster Foundation
Formed in 1986, the Morrison & Foerster Foundation is a charitable foundation funded mainly by the firm's partners.In total, the Foundation has donated $44 million to nonprofit organizations since its inception.The Foundation's charitable donations frequently focus on programs serving disadvantaged children and young people or that provide free legal services to low-income people. The foundation also supports fellowship and scholarship programs to encourage diversity in higher education and the legal field.
Other causes funded by the Foundation support community-based initiatives that involve food and shelter, health, and the arts.
In 2015, Law360 recognized Morrison & Foerster as one of the 10 Most Charitable Law Firms.
Leadership
Chair: Larren NashelskyChief Operating Officer: Pat Cavaney
Managing Partners: Paul Friedman, Craig Martin, Eric Piesner, Tessa J. Schwartz
Corporate Department Co-Chairs: Jacklyn Liu, Thomas Knox
Finance Department Co-Chairs: Gary Lee, Nicholas Spiliotes
Litigation Department Chair: Grant Esposito, David McDowell
Tax Department Co-Chairs: Craig Fields, Thomas Humphreys, David Strong
Offices
| Office | Managing Partner | Year Founded |
| Beijing | Paul McKenzie | 1998 |
| Berlin | Jens-Uwe Hinder, Hanno Timner | 2013 |
| Boston | David Ephraim | 2019 |
| Brussels | Tom McQuail | 1991 |
| Denver | David Strong | 1979 |
| Hong Kong | Timothy Blakely | 1983 |
| London | Alistair Maughan, Jonathan Wheeler | 1980 |
| Los Angeles | David McDowell | 1974 |
| New York | Brett Miller | 1987 |
| Northern Virginia | Charles Katz | 2000 |
| Palo Alto | Timothy Harris | 1985 |
| San Diego | Steve Rowles | 1999 |
| San Francisco | Philip Besirof | 1883 |
| Shanghai | Paul McKenzie | 2003 |
| Singapore | Eric Piesner | 2013 |
| Tokyo | Kenneth Siegel | 1987 |
| Washington, D.C. | Joseph Palmore | 1979 |
Noted professionals
- Beth Brinkmann, former assistant to the solicitor general of the U.S. from 1993 until 2001, and who served as a partner until 2009.
- Drew S. Days, III, who served as the United States Solicitor General from 1993 to 1996, and who served as of counsel until 2011.
- LaShann M. DeArcy, judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York since 2015
- Ketanji Brown Jackson, judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia since 2013, former commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, who served as of counsel until 2013.
- Justin Fairfax, who is the lieutenant governor of the U.S. state of Virginia.
- Paul Goldstein, Stanford Law School professor and an expert on intellectual property law, currently serves as of counsel.
- Shirley Hufstedler, first U.S. Secretary of Education from 1979-1981, who was of counsel.
- Crystal McKellar, former child actress who played Becky Slater in the hit series The Wonder Years, former associate with the firm
- James M. Peck, who served as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for Southern District of New York - presided over the Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy and is currently Global Head of the firm's Business Restructuring and Insolvency practice
- Tony West, former acting United States Associate Attorney General, who served as a partner until 2009.