WASHINGTON, D.C., September 12, 2007 ─ Morrison & Foerster LLP partners Thomas J. Knox and Lawrence T. Yanowitch were recognized as the top lawyers in Washington in Corporate Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions, respectively, at the Washington Business Journal’s fourth annual Top Washington Lawyers’ awards ceremony, held yesterday in Washington, D.C.  The Washington Business Journal received over 500 nominations for the 15 categories of awards given.

Mr. Knox, Co-Chair of the firm’s East Coast Corporate Group, was named “Top Washington Corporate Finance Lawyer.”  Mr. Yanowitch, Co-Chair of the firm’s Global Mergers and Acquisitions Group, was named “Top Washington Mergers & Acquisitions Lawyer.”  Mr. Yanowitch also received the same award in 2006. 

Mr. Knox recently advised Sourcefire, Inc. on its $100 million initial public offering of stock, which was underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, UBS, and Jefferies.  He has represented NexTone Communications, Inc. in recent debt and equity financings, and he advised the Institute for Quality Management, Inc. (IQM) on its recent sale to CACI International.  He serves as counsel to many other prominent companies in the region, including New Enterprise Associates, Cigital, INPUT, Teaching Strategies, and Upper Quadrant.

“Larry and I accept these awards on behalf of the exceptional team of lawyers at Morrison & Foerster, as well as our clients, who entrust us with their most important projects,” said Mr. Knox.  “I also want to thank the Washington Business Journal for recognizing the role of lawyers in the business community and for honoring our firm with these awards.”

Mr. Yanowitch has completed hundreds of M&A transactions in his career.  “This past year has been one of the busiest ever for our talented M&A team,” said Mr. Yanowitch.  He led the legal team in the $550 million webMethods/Software AG merger this past summer.  It was one of the largest acquisitions in the Washington region in 2007 and one of the largest software deals in the history of the European IT industry.  In another significant local transaction, he served as lead M&A counsel representing Comsat International in its acquisition by British Telecom.  Comsat is based in McLean, Virginia and is a leading data and networking services provider to private enterprises and public sector organizations in Latin America.  In December 2006, Mr. Yanowitch represented Savvis Inc. in its $135 million sale of its Content Delivery Network business line to Level 3 Communications.  CDNs facilitate the delivery of video and other content over the Internet.

“It is an honor to be recognized by the Washington Business Journal, the publication of record for the business community in this area,” said Mr. Yanowitch.  “This award affirms our commitment to providing the highest quality transactional representation to the region’s leading companies.”