International firm Morrison & Foerster was founded in San Francisco in 1883. Over 135 years later, the firm has expanded to 17 offices across the US, Europe and Asia. In the United States, the firm has offices in Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Northern Virginia, Palo Alto, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington D.C. The firm has shown great strides in diversity. In addition to being Mansfield Plus certified, Morrison & Foerster has won numerous awards for their diversity initiatives.   

Focusses/specialisms   

The firm is active across all financial and corporate practice areas as well as project development, but is best known for its outstanding work in restructuring and insolvency.    

In regulatory financial services, the firm acts for companies on compliance matters related to investments and acquisitions. It also is active in fintech and payment related matters.  

In derivatives, the team advises banks and other companies in financial services on margin loans, options, swaps, futures, forwards and cryptocurrency related transactions. Many of these transactions had a related regulatory component.   

The investment funds team represents investment and private equity firms in fund formations.   

The restructuring and insolvency practice advises creditors in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and restructuring proceedings.    

Key clients   

Key clients for the firm include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citibank, Shell International Finance, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, eBay and Deutsche Bank Securities.  

Research period review: 33rd edition (2022/2023)   

Throughout the research period the capital markets team engaged in a variety of representations in both debt and equity. For equity, the work included deSPAC transactions, public offerings and private placements for both issuers and underwriters. For debt, the company represented both issuers and underwriters in offerings. The team also worked on numerous derivatives transactions, which included regulatory matters and OTC transactions. 

With regard to lateral hiring, capital markets partner Steve Tyndall joined the firm from Pillsbury. 

Deal highlights: 33rd edition (2022/2023)   

Alexandria Real Estate Equities $1.8 billion bond offering 

Endurance Acquisition Corp $1.3 billion exchange offer and deSPAC IPO  

Shell International Finance $1.5 billion bond offering 

Client feedback: 33rd edition (2022/2023)   

Investment funds 

“Very attentive, very high-quality work.” 

Murray Indick 

“Consummate professional and has helped us through a huge variety of problems.” 

Nick Sheets 

“Very high-quality work product. Very timely. Very proactive in helping us navigate problems.”