Morrison Foerster

Morrison Foerster, a San Francisco-based law firm with a legacy spanning over 140 years, has built a strong reputation in areas including intellectual property, finance, life sciences, technology, and litigation, particularly in the US and Asia. The firm’s expertise in intellectual property has received significant recognition, including by Managing intellectual property in 2024 as a “leading law firm”, with 15 practice area rankings and 56 individual recognitions across the US, Europe and Asia. Other standout areas include regulatory compliance, particularly in privacy and data security, Asia-Pacific M&As, litigation, and investigations. In 2024, Morrison Foerster reported global revenue of $1.343 billion, securing the 46th spot on The American Lawyer’s Global 200 list. In London, Morrison Foerster achieved 14 recognitions in the Legal 500 2024 rankings, showcasing its expertise in areas such as data protection and privacy compliance, technology, debt capital markets, investigations, and litigation. While its London M&A practice (upper mid-market section) is modestly ranked Band 7, Morrison Foerster London has been pivotal in several high-profile SoftBank investments led by its Band 1 Chambers Asia-Pacific M&A practice. These include SoftBank’s acquisition of Graphcore, a UK-based semi-conductor developer, and its $1.05 billion Series C funding of autonomous driving company Wayve. In 2023, the London team also represented Arm in its $4.6 billion IPO, the largest public offering of the year. Such deal records, achieved in collaboration with the Japan and US teams, underscore Morrison Foerster London’s cross-border deal flows and its consistent ability to manage complex, multi-jurisdictional matters. Mirroring its US successes, Morrison Foerster London is highly recognised in IT, telecoms, data protection, privacy, and cybersecurity. Its capabilities cover a range of technology transactional and regulatory needs, including licensing, cloud-based outsourcing transactions, Software-as-a-Service, public procurement, and digital regulatory compliance. Notable clients include prominent names such as eBay, Fujitsu, McKinsey, Novartis, OpenAI, SoftBank, UPS, and Visa. The firm’s technology expertise, combined with its regulatory investigations capabilities (corporate side), lends itself to the lead counsel role for Fujitsu Services Limited (FSL) in the Post Office scandal, which concerns the Horizon IT System provided by FSL to the UK Post Office from 1999 to date. Morrison Foerster adopts a distinctive and holistic approach to billable hours. The official target for bonuses is 1,950 hours, of which a minimum of 1,800 hours are billable and increasingly have to be “paying client” billable. The latter came about after recent changes in the structure of the firm’s billable hours requirement to align associates with the commercial objectives of the law firm. On top of that, associates are expected to complete additional 150 hours of pro bono/DEI work to be qualified for annual bonuses, with unlimited billable hour credit for pro bono work and up to 50 billable hour credits for efforts in supporting the firm’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, such as mentoring. This unique structure reflects Morrison Foerster’s commitment to balancing client service with social responsibility.