Prominent Emerging Companies Partner Peter Fusco Brings Leading ECVC Group to Morrison Foerster’s New York Office

(December 11, 2024) – Morrison Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce the arrivals of Peter Fusco, Jae Zhou, and Frank Paz, as partners in the firm’s Emerging Companies + Venture Capital (ECVC) Group, based in the New York office. The group, led by Fusco, who joins as a co-chair of the ECVC Group alongside Michael Glaser and Jim Krenn, brings to the firm a market-leading East Coast emerging companies practice and more than four decades of experience advising venture funds and tech companies throughout all stages of their life cycle, from pre-incorporation planning to angel, seed, and growth rounds to exit in M&A. Fusco, Zhou, and Paz, join from another prominent global firm, where Fusco built a leading ECVC group in New York. Joining them from the same firm is a team of at least four associates. The team of seven attorneys will be based in New York.  

“Pete and his stellar team of lawyers are strong strategic additions to our emerging companies practice, and we are thrilled to welcome them to MoFo,” said Michael Glaser, co-chair of the firm’s Emerging Companies + Venture Capital Group. “In addition to bringing a well-established and nationally recognized practice and expanding our footprint in New York’s dynamic business market, the group has a strong tech focus and client base, which have great synergies with our core strengths while presenting numerous opportunities with other complementary and adjacent practices at the firm, including M&A, technology transactions, patent prosecution, and litigation.”

Over the span of his over 20-year career, Fusco has served as a senior outside legal advisor to many startups, growth-stage companies, and venture funds. He also works closely with the NYU Tandon Future Labs startup incubator ecosystem. Zhou and Paz bring over 16 years of experience advising emerging technology companies in all stages of the startup lifecycle, from formation to exit, including providing strategic advice to founders and investors in connection with complex transactions and other corporate issues.

“MoFo is a technology industry market leader with a tremendous global platform and equally impressive emerging companies and transactional capabilities, particularly in the areas of AI, consumer products, and Fintech, all of which are highly synergistic with our client roster and practice focus,” said Fusco. “We look forward to growing our world-class practice on the ground in New York while working with our new colleagues in the Bay Area and beyond, to help our startup, growth-stage, and venture fund clients get an edge on the competition.”

Fusco, Zhou, Paz, and the wider group’s addition underscores Morrison Foerster’s commitment to the strategic continued expansion of its market-leading emerging companies and technology capabilities in recent years. This includes the high-profile additions of Michael Glaser and Mike LaPlante in San Francisco in 2022, and the additions of Chuck Cotter and Finity Jernigan in Denver, and William Wilson and Boris Segalis in New York in 2024.