Morrison & Foerster

Morrison & Foerster LLP
Headquarters	San Francisco
No. of offices	16
No. of attorneys	1,000+
Major practice areas	General practice
Key people	Keith C. Wetmore (Chair)
Date founded	1883
Company type	Limited liability partnership
Website
www.mofo.com

Morrison & Foerster headquarters (San Francisco Downtown Center)

Morrison & Foerster LLP (MoFo) is a large full-service law firm with more than 1,000 lawyers in 15 offices. The firm was founded in San Francisco, USA in 1883, and its largest office is still located there. It was founded by Alexander Francis Morrison, a graduate of UC Hastings College of Law. Its lawyers have experience including real estate, securitization, joint ventures corporate, finance and financial services, life sciences and technology, land use and environmental law, IP litigation, joint ventures, strategic alliances and mergers and acquisitions. Morrison & Foerster was the chief international counsel for the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games of 2008.

Morrison & Foerster has an IPO practice for emerging technology firms concentrated in its San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Diego, New York, and Los Angeles offices. IPO work is also being done out of its Asian offices in China and Japan.

Awards

Morrison & Foerster is consistently ranked on the American Lawyer's A-List. In 2005 the firm was ranked #11, in 2006 #6, in 2007 #16, in 2008 #20, and in 2009 #8.^[1]

In 2008 Morrison & Foerster was crowned at the 2008 ALB Japan Law Awards^[2] as the:

• Deal of the Year - M&A Deal of the Year
• Deal of the Year - Japan Deal of the Year

Offices

Current offices

• Beijing (1998)
• Brussels
• Denver (1979)
• Hong Kong (1982)
• London (1980)
• Los Angeles (1974)
• McLean (2000)
• New York
• Palo Alto
• Sacramento
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Shanghai
• Tokyo
• Washington, D.C. (1979)

Former offices

• Buenos Aires (operated from 1999–2001)
• Century City
• Irvine (closed in 2008)
• Walnut Creek (closed 12/31/10)
• Singapore (closed in 2009)

Noted professionals

• Drew S. Days, III, who served as the U.S. Solicitor General from 1993 to 1996, and who currently is of counsel
• Beth Brinkmann, who was the Assistant to the Solicitor General of the U.S. from 1993 until 2001, and who until 2009 was a partner
• Tony West, former partner in the San Francisco office and former federal prosecutor, is currently assistant attorney general for the Civil Division in the Department of Justice
• Ketanji Brown Jackson, currently of counsel at the firm and also a commissioner on the United States Sentencing Commission
• Crystal McKellar, former child actress who played Becky Slater in the hit series The Wonder Years

Nickname

The firm nickname is MoFo. As of 28 February 2005, however, the firm has returned to the more conservative Morrison & Foerster, although MoFo is still used as the firm's URL: mofo.com. It has not officially explained why it returned to its conventional name, although it has been speculated the reason is its similarity to the diminutive form of "motherfucker."

During the dot-com era of the 1990s, when it was fashionable for American companies to appear irreverent, the nickname was prominently featured in the firm's advertising, both online and offline. It gained further notoriety through a bit by Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.^[3] Leno joked that the firm's clients could shout, "Get me my MoFo lawyer!"

Additionally, the home game Trivial Pursuit has a question and answer circulating in current versions asking what four-letter nickname is used by worldwide law firm Morrison & Foerster. The answer, of course, is "MoFo".

References

1. ^ http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=1202431745085
2. ^ www.legalbusinessonline.com.au
3. ^ http://schrepfer.com/jayleno-highspeed.html

External links

• Official Firm Website
• LawPeriscope Profile