Morrison Foerster

Firm Details:

Chair of the Firm: Eric T. McCrath

Vice Chairs: Jennifer Marines, Jeff Jaeckel

Department Chairs: Richard Hung, Christine Wong, David Ephraim, Tessa Schwartz

Number of partners worldwide: 363

Number of Asia partners: 53

Number of other lawyers worldwide: 750

Number of other Asia lawyers: 116

Headquarters: San Francisco

Asia Offices: Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo.

Other Offices: Austin, Berlin, Boston, Brussels, Denver, London, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Palo Alto, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.

Firm Overview:

With more than 1,000 lawyers across 18 offices, Morrison Foerster (MoFo) is a preeminent global law firm dedicated to delivering business-oriented results to clients across Asia, the United States and Europe. With offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, MoFo has handled major matters in China for nearly 40 years. In Japan, MoFo has the largest presence of any global firm and is one of the largest law firms in the country, domestic or international. The Singapore office features lawyers with many years of experience in South and Southeast Asia.

Dynamic technology and life science companies, large financial institutions, leading consumer product companies and other market-leading businesses come to MoFo for its knowledge, innovation and business aptitude, as well as its long-standing commitment to diversity and social justice.

Main Areas of Practice:

Capital Markets:

MoFo’s market-leading practice in Asia regularly represents issuers and underwriters in debt and equity financings. It is one of the largest and most active capital markets practices of any international law firm in the region, advising clients on a broad range of corporate financing matters involving Hong Kong, Japanese, U.S. and English law.

Dispute Resolution:

MoFo’s full-service Asia dispute resolution practice is an integrated regional practice, working seamlessly across its five offices in Asia to handle all aspects of complex cross-border commercial litigation, international arbitration and pre-dispute counselling matters, including IP litigation. The firm has represented clients in over 100 arbitrations under all major institutional rules across the Asia Pacific region. The firm has a leading Japanese domestic litigation practice, representing clients on high-profile proceedings before the Tokyo District Court, the IP High Court, the Japan Patent Office and the Japan Customs Office. MoFo also represents clients before the Hong Kong courts and regulatory bodies.

Energy, Projects and Infrastructure:

MoFo’s Energy and Infrastructure practice provides full service legal representation across the entire lifecycle of energy and infrastructure assets – from structuring, planning and licensing through to construction, financing and operation including in relation to joint venture arrangements, mergers, acquisitions, disposals, project restructurings, political risk insurance and disputes. The Asia team represents key stakeholders, including sponsors, state owned entities, contractors and lenders across the full energy spectrum including renewables and clean tech energy, oil & gas (including LNG and gas-to-power), conventional power, mining, petrochemicals, infrastructure development, telecommunications and transportation projects.

Finance:

MoFo’s Asia finance practice advises clients throughout the region on a comprehensive range of multi-jurisdictional financing transactions. These include project finance, acquisition and leveraged finance, real estate finance, takeovers, debt structuring and restructuring, syndicated lending and subscription line financing. The Tokyo office has one of the largest finance practices of any international law firm in Japan, with substantial experience handling a wide array of domestic and international financial and financial restructuring transactions.

Intellectual Property:

MoFo is a leading firm in Asia in outsourcing, licensing and technology transactions. Only a select number of international firms focus on IP matters in Japan, and MoFo has the largest and most comprehensive IP team, with over 30 lawyers practicing in the Tokyo office. In China, the firm has extensive experience in representing Chinese companies in their IP disputes in the United States and in the development of their global IP portfolios. MoFo also advises global clients on proactive strategies to protect IP rights from infringement and misappropriation in China and on implementing enforcement actions in China.

Investigations & Regulatory Compliance:

MoFo has one of the world’s leading compliance, investigations and anti-corruption practices. The Asia team features accomplished trial lawyers, former prosecutors and experienced former in-house counsel with significant experience in all types of investigations and regulatory compliance issues such as U.S. economic sanctions, anti-money laundering, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), securities and accounting fraud, and related governance and corporate compliance issues. The Asia team works seamlessly with the firm’s global practice, which includes former U.S. government officials specialising in national security, sanctions and international trade, as well as privacy and in-house forensic accounting experts.

Life sciences:

MoFo has one of the most highly regarded life sciences + Healthcare practices in Asia. We work with innovators at every phase of their growth cycle, from conception to commercialization and exit, vigilantly protecting and enforcing their rights in competitive markets.

We count among our clients some of the leading names in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries, and some of the fastest growing companies at the intersection of life sciences and data analytics.Our team includes attorneys and patent agents with more than 100 advanced scientific and engineering degrees, including 65 PhDs in life sciences and related engineering disciplines.

M&A and Private Equity:

MoFo has advised over 260 M&A and Private Equity deals in Asia in the past five years, worth over U.S. $372 billion in total. In South and Southeast Asia, the firm’s lawyers have many years of experience in managing complex cross-border M&A transactions across the diverse jurisdictions in the region. In Japan, the firm’s M&A practice is one of the most active of any international law firm in the country, representing Japanese and non-Japanese companies in Japan and around the world. The firm’s lawyers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong combine senior PRC and Hong Kong regulatory expertise with international M&A and private equity deal execution capability.

Private Funds:

MoFo’s Asia private funds practice represents fund sponsors and investors in the formation and operation of investment funds of all strategies, including buyout, venture capital and other private equity funds, fund-of-funds, distressed company funds, real estate, infrastructure and hedge funds. With funds lawyers based in key financial centers across the globe, the group handles complex and specialised cross-border fundraising, fund formations and investments.

Real Estate:

The Asia real estate practice represents investors in real estate investments in Asia and internationally, including advising on financing, acquisitions, joint ventures, transactional due-diligence, compliance, risk management and dispute resolution. Clients include private equity real estate firms, investment managers, sovereign wealth funds, development companies and REITs that invest in real estate assets and companies in this sector. MoFo is one of the few firms that has been active in the formation and offering of interests in J-REITs.

Technology Transactions:

MoFo represents leading media and IT companies, global banks and financial institutions, biotech companies and private equity funds in navigating the legal, structuring and commercial challenges that arise in complex technology and IP-related transactions. The team advises on software and IT licensing and procurement, patent licensing and monetization, outsourcing arrangements, mergers & acquisitions, development, collaboration, joint-venture, and distribution deals relating to new technologies and IP assets in a wide range of cutting-edge industries in Asia’s rapidly evolving business and regulatory environment.