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Morrison & Foerster is a worldwide leader in representing corporations, funds, investment banks and other entities as they engage in a wide range of transactions. With more than 280 lawyers across 16 offices worldwide, our Corporate Department is comprised of strong specialized practice areas, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity funds, private equity investments and buyouts, emerging companies and venture capital, corporate governance, capital-raising and public companies counseling.
We assist our clients with all of their most important corporate needs, whether that involves mergers, acquisitions or complex strategic transactions, securities offerings, including early-stage financing through initial public offerings and subsequent debt and equity offerings, complying with securities laws around the world, establishing a private equity fund, or engaging in a leveraged buyout. Further, in an increasingly global corporate environment, our expertise in cross-border transactions is particularly well-established, as a result of several decades of highly focused growth in Asia and Europe. Our overriding goal is to provide innovative solutions for the issues that arise in our clients' transactions through a highly collaborative approach that draws on our broad and deep areas of expertise in representing corporations, funds and investment banks.
While our Corporate Department has experience representing clients in a wide variety of industries, we have notably deep experience with clients in consumer products, energy, clean technology, renewable energy, financial institutions, life sciences, real estate investment trusts, retail, technology (information technology, computer products and peripherals, semiconductors, and software), defense and government contracting, and telecommunications and media. Working effectively with companies in these diverse industries requires proficiency in a number of areas that are core components of what we have done for decades and in which we are known to excel, such as bank regulatory, intellectual property, real estate, and technology transactions, come to mind.
The Corporate Department represents clients across a broad spectrum of size and complexity. We represent companies, private equity sponsors and investment banks in public and private mergers and acquisitions of all sizes, including both domestic and cross-border transactions. We are equally comfortable assisting with financing transactions at all points along the financing continuum—from early stage and venture financings, to private placements, to IPOs, to PIPEs and registered directs, to offerings by large public companies. The Corporate Department also assists private equity funds and other private investment funds of all types in their formation, including buyout funds, venture capital funds, distressed company funds, mezzanine funds, funds-of-funds, hedge funds and real-estate funds, as well as providing advice to private equity funds and other investors in domestic and cross-border buyout and investment transactions, real estate investments, joint ventures and strategic alliances.
Our Corporate Department clients often look to us for ongoing counseling on all of their corporate needs. In addition to our work on specific transactions describe above, our clients are able to take advantage of our thought leadership in the areas of corporate governance, executive compensation, public disclosure and similar issues that typically arise for both private and public companies. We are primary outside counsel to over 100 public companies, ranging from small-capitalization companies to Fortune 500 companies, and these clients routinely seek our advice on all aspects of corporate governance and securities law compliance on a worldwide basis.
Corporate Board Member America’s Best Corporate Law Firms –Top 25 2018
Law360 2016 Named one of the M&A Practice Groups of the Year
Chambers Global 2018 Corporate/M&A: United States Corporate/M&A: Asia-Pacific Region Corporate/M&A: International Firms: China Corporate/M&A: International Firms: Japan Corporate/M&A: International Firms: Singapore Corporate/M&A: Experts Based Abroad: Israel Corporate/M&A: Germany Corporate/M&A: Private Equity: Asia-Pacific Region Capital Markets: Debt & Equity: United States Capital Markets: Derivatives: United States Capital Markets: Equity: Asia-Pacific Region Capital Markets: Equity: International Firms: China Capital Markets: Domestic: Japan Capital Markets: International (US Law): Japan
Chambers USA 2018 Corporate/M&A: Nationwide (“Elite”) Corporate/M&A: Northern California Corporate/M&A: New York (“Highly Regarded”) Corporate/M&A: Northern Virginia (Band 1) Corporate/M&A: Venture Capital: California Capital Markets: Derivatives: Nationwide REITs: Nationwide Startups & Emerging Companies: Nationwide
Chambers Asia-Pacific 2018 Corporate/M&A: International Firms: Japan (band 1) Corporate/M&A: Asia-Pacific Region Corporate/M&A: The Elite – International Firms: China Corporate/M&A: International Firms: Singapore Corporate/M&A: Private Equity: Asia-Pacific Region Capital Markets: Equity: Asia-Pacific Region Capital Markets: Equity: International Firms: China Capital Markets: Domestic: Japan Capital Markets: International (US Law): Japan Private Equity: Buyouts & Venture Capital Investment: International Firms: China
Chambers UK 2018 Capital Markets: Debt: London Firms
Chambers Europe 2018 Corporate/M&A: Germany – Mid-Market
U.S. News – Best Lawyers® Best Law Firms 2017 Mergers & Acquisitions Law: Tier One: National | San Francisco | Washington D.C.
Corporate Law: Tier One: National | Sacramento | San Diego | San Francisco | San Jose | Washington D.C. Information Technology Law: Law Firm of the Year
Venture Capital Law: Tier One: National | Washington D.C.
Securities/Capital Markets Law: Tier One: National | San Diego | San Francisco | Washington D.C.
Securities Regulation Law: Tier One: National | Los Angeles | Washington D.C.
Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law: Tier One: San Francisco
Legal 500 2018 M&A: U.S. Large Deals ($1bn+) Corporate/M&A: International Firms & JVs– Japan Corporate/M&A: Foreign Firms – China Corporate (Including M&A): Hong Kong Corporate/M&A: Foreign Firms – Singapore Capital Markets: Debt Offerings – Advice to Issuers: United States Capital Markets: Debt Offerings – Advice to Managers: United States Capital Markets: Equity Offerings – Advice to Issuers: United States Capital Markets: Equity Offerings – Advice to Managers: United States Capital Markets: Global Offerings – Advice to Corporates: United States Capital Markets: Global Offerings – Advice to Financial Institutions: United States Capital Markets: International Firms and JVs – Japan Capital Markets (Equity): Hong Kong Mutual/Registered Funds: United States Investment Funds: Hong Kong Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation: United States Venture Capital & Emerging Companies: United States Real Estate Investment Trusts: United States Private Equity Buyouts: United States Private Equity Funds: United States Private Equity/Venture Capital: Foreign Firms – China Private Equity: Venture Capital: Germany (“Other Recommended Firms”) Private Equity: Hong Kong
Asian Legal Business 2018 International Deal Firm of the YearDeal of the Year for Toshiba’s Sale of Toshiba Memory Corporation M&A Deal of the Year (Premium) for Toshiba’s Sale of Toshiba Memory Corporation
MergerMarket's Japan M&A Awards International M&A Legal Adviser of the Year Outbound M&A Legal Adviser of the Year Technology, Media & Telecom M&A Legal Adviser of the Year
Named to the 2018 list of ”America’s Best Corporate Law Firms” as designated by directors and general counsel of publicly-traded companies (Corporate Board Member/FTI Consulting)
M+A 2017 Annual Review
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