Morrison & Foerster LLP (also known as MoFo) is an American multinational

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise consumer, clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and Obligation, respon ...

headquartered in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, with 17 offices located throughout the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

History

In 1883, Alexander Francis Morrison (1856–1921), an alumnus of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, and

Hastings College of the Law The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (abbreviated as UC Law SF or UC Law) is a Public university, public Law school in the United States, law school in San Francisco, California, United States. It was known as the Univ ...

, founded the firm's oldest ancestor in San Francisco under the name O’Brien & Morrison.O’Hara, Eileen, et al. (2006). Morrison & Foerster LLP: The Evolution of a Law Firm. RR Donnelly. pp. 5 His aim was to practice "principally in the line of corporation business."McAfee, David (July 21, 2014)
California Powerhouse: Morrison & Foerster
Law360. Retrieved November 18, 2015. In 1891, Morrison formed a partnership with Constantine E.A. Foerster (1860–1898). However, Foerster died in 1898 at age 37 from tuberculosis. After his death, other attorneys came in as partners and the firm's name changed several times over the next two decades. By late 1924, the firm of Morrison, Dunne & Brobeck had seven partners and eight associates. On November 29, 1924, everyone arrived at work to find on their desks a letter signed by partners Herman Phleger, William I. Brobeck and Peter F. Dunne which announced the "reorganization" of the firm. By "reorganization" they actually meant dissolution of the firm, effective December 31, 1924. Morrison's widow May was furious at the three men for wrecking the firm which she regarded as her late husband's legacy and prohibited them from using the Morrison name. A 1996 history of the Brobeck firm claimed that Phleger had persuaded Brobeck and Dunne that the law firm would be more profitable if they ejected the four other partners, so the three of them suddenly fired and locked out the four other partners, who then had to break into the office with a fire axe to retrieve their files. However, this story may be apocryphal because the Morrison firm's files include documents showing that the attorneys had attempted to provide for the "orderly dissolution of the old firm", the transfer of its files, and the settlement of fees for pending matters. The firm's attorneys organized two new law firms which began operations in January 1925: Dunne, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison (later renamed

Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP was a large law firm based in San Francisco, California, United States. In 2003, the firm was Liquidation, liquidated under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, after it had lost a substantial amount of money in th ...

) and Morrison, Hohfeld, Foerster, Shuman & Clark. The "Foerster" of the latter firm was not the late Constantine E.A. Foerster, but his son Roland, who had joined the Morrison firm as an associate in 1916. May Morrison was affectionate towards the four founding partners of the latter firm and actively assisted them in creating a new firm to carry forward the legacy of the old one. They were the "favorites" of her late husband Alexander, whom she called "Aleck", and she thus referred to them as "Aleck's Boys". 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.O’Hara, Eileen, et al. (2006). Morrison & Foerster LLP: The Evolution of a Law Firm. RR Donnelly. pp. 77 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 2003, Morrison & Foerster received their first 100% rating on HRC's

Corporate Equality Index The Corporate Equality Index is a report published by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation as a tool to rate American businesses on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors. Its primary source of ...

indicating they met all 7 of that year's criteria for having a positive record "toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors". 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. In 2022, Morrison & Foerster was a founding member of the

Legal Alliance for Reproductive Rights Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the art ...

, a coalition of United States law firms offering free legal services to people seeking and providing abortions in the wake of ''

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', 597 U.S. 215 (2022), is a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court in which the court held ...

'', which overruled ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right to have an ...

''.

Clients

The firm was the lead bankruptcy counsel to

Residential Capital GMAC ResCap, Inc., earlier Residential Funding Company LLC and Residential Capital Corporation, was a residential mortgage loan originator and servicer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was a subsidiary of GMAC (now Ally Financial). As a result ...

. ResCap. and secured their

chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

plan.Checkler, Joseph (December 11, 2013)
Bankruptcy Judge Confirms ResCap Liquidation Plan
Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 22, 2015. In July 2013, Morrison & Foerster represented

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...

in its $21.6 billion acquisition of a 78 percent stake in

Sprint Nextel Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before being Merger of Sprint Corporation and T-Mobile US, acquired by T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 5 ...

. 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 An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

in history.

Morrison & Foerster Foundation

Formed in 1986, the Morrison & Foerster Foundation is a charitable foundation funded mainly by the firm's partners.MoFo Foundation
Morrison & Foerster. Retrieved October 23, 2015. In total, the Foundation has donated $44 million to nonprofit organizations since its inception.Maleske, Melissa (September 29, 2015)
The 10 Most Charitable Law Firms
Law360. Retrieved October 23, 2015. In 2015, Law360 recognized Morrison & Foerster as one of the 10 Most Charitable Law Firms.

Notable affiliates

Beth Brinkmann Beth S. Brinkmann (born September 24, 1958) is an American lawyer who served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice, heading up the appellate staff in the DOJ's Civil Division during the administration of ...

, 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 The solicitor general of the United States (USSG or SG), is the fourth-highest-ranking official within the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), and represents the federal government in cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. ...

from 1993 to 1996, and who served as

of counsel Of counsel is the title of an attorney in the legal profession of the United States who often has a relationship with a law firm or an organization but is neither an associate nor partner. Some firms use titles such as "counsel", "special couns ...

until 2011. * LaShann M. DeArcy, judge of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the United States district court, federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five List of counties in New York, counties in ...

since 2015 *

Ketanji Brown Jackson Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson (née Brown; ; born September 14, 1970) is an American lawyer and jurist who is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Jackson Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination, was nominated ...

, justice of the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

. Formerly judge for the

United States District Court for the District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a United States district court, federal district court in Washington, D.C. Along with the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii and ...

from 2013 to 2021, former commissioner on the

U.S. Sentencing Commission The United States Sentencing Commission is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the Federal judiciary of the United States, judicial branch of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal go ...

, who served as

until 2013. *

Justin Fairfax Justin Edward Fairfax (born February 17, 1979) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 41st lieutenant governor of Virginia from 2018 to 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the second African-American elected statewide ...

, who served as lieutenant governor of the U.S. state of Virginia from 2018 to 2022. * Paul Goldstein,

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (SLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, Stanford Law had an acceptance rate of 6.28% i ...

professor and an expert on

intellectual property law Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, ...

, currently serves as of counsel. *

Shirley Hufstedler Shirley Ann Mount Hufstedler (August 24, 1925 – March 30, 2016) was an American attorney and judge who served as the first United States secretary of education from 1979 to 1981. She previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Ninth ...

, first U.S. Secretary of Education from 1979 to 1981, who was

. * Tony West, former acting

United States Associate Attorney General The United States associate attorney general is the third-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The associate attorney general advises and assists the attorney general and the deputy attorney general in poli ...

, who served as a partner until 2009.

References

External links