Start Your MoFo Story in London
From our office in the heart of London’s world-renowned financial district, our UK- and U.S.- qualified lawyers work on complex, cross-border transactions with clients, helping them to grow their business and manage risk. We handle some of the world’s largest cross-border transactions and resolve some of the biggest disputes across multiple jurisdictions.
MoFo Stories
Get to know MoFo London through the eyes of our talented lawyers. Click on the photos to read why they chose MoFo and, more importantly, why they choose to stay.
Expect More
A Global Firm of Exceptional Credentials
Our name is synonymous with a commitment to client service that informs everything we do. We are recognised throughout the world as a leader in providing cutting-edge legal advice on matters that are redefining practices and industries. But the Morrison Foerster name tells only part of our story. In the 1970s, when teletype was used to send overseas cables, the firm purposely chose “MoFo” as its address. The nickname stuck, and it has become a lasting reminder that, while we are serious about the work that we do for our clients, we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
Impactful Work
Our commitment to excellence unites us, as does our dedication to giving back to the communities in which we work and live. MoFo lawyers bring their talents and passions to bear on a range of pro bono initiatives, and the firm has been a long-time leader in the pro bono field. We’ve also been a long-time champion for promoting diversity within the legal profession. We continue to thrive and grow because of our cultural values, not in spite of them; here, you can discover your true potential.
Client-Centered Approach
MoFo lawyers have one compelling mission: to deliver success for our clients. Clients are clients of the firm, not of individual lawyers. We work together to find creative, business-savvy solutions to complex and routine legal matters. Clients include leading technology and life sciences companies, Fortune 100 companies, and large financial institutions. We also represent investment funds and startup companies. Over the years, we have supported many in their growth and development as leading industry players and household brands.
Trainee Programme
You’ll get direct client contact from day one. You’ll feel valued and involved. The hands-on experience we offer will help you understand both the legal and commercial context of the advice we give. You’ll quickly experience the satisfaction of going the extra mile for our clients. Download our graduate recruitment brochure for more information.
Learn more about opportunities for students and recent graduates.
Our Culture + Values
Our strength and success come from the diverse and collective talent at MoFo and a long-standing commitment to diversity, inclusion, and pro bono work. We firmly believe that our differences make us stronger and more valuable in our work for our clients, in our advocacy for what is right, and in our support of the communities we serve both locally and globally.
A Deep Commitment to Pro Bono
At Morrison Foerster, pro bono work is part of our DNA. Our dedicated pro bono team and London Pro Bono Committee provide frequent opportunities for London attorneys to work on both domestic and international matters, ranging from providing direct services to low-income individuals, to counselling nonprofit organisations and advising at law clinics.
Attorneys in our London office partner with a variety of organisations on pro bono projects, such as Advocates for International Development, TrustLaw, JUSTICE, PILnet, Asylum Aid, Zacchaeus 2000 Trust (Z2K), the Chancery Lane Project, the Centre for Reproductive Rights, the Nature Conservancy, Prime Advocates, Not Beyond Redemption, Human Rights Watch, the Public International Law & Policy Group, and APPEAL (Centre for Criminal Appeals).
The London office is a member of the Collaborative Plan for Pro Bono in the UK, a law firm-led initiative to promote pro bono work, in which members commit to strive for an average of 25 pro bono hours per attorney, per year in their UK offices. Last year, our lawyers from London averaged over 69 pro bono hours per attorney. Examples of work our London-based lawyers have undertaken include:
London Pro Bono Causes
Supporting the Kenya office of the Center for Reproductive Rights
Supporting the Kenya office of the Center for Reproductive Rights in a variety of ways to assist it in its mission of advancing reproductive rights and maternal health in Kenya. This includes drafting an amicus brief on an important case at the High Court of Kenya on behalf of an adolescent who died after suffering from complications from an unsafe abortion. The case resulted in a landmark ruling issued by the High Court of Kenya that strengthens access to safe abortion in Kenya, where, on average, seven women and girls die from unsafe abortions every day.
Collaborating on disability benefit appeals with Zacchaeus 2000 Trust
Collaborating on disability benefit appeals with Z2K, a London-wide charity working to combat poverty. Since the partnership began in early 2018, numerous members of the London office — including partners, associates, trainees and paralegals — have worked on cases for low-income, disabled clients who were receiving disability benefits that were inadequate to cover their needs. To date, we have taken on 93 individual cases, with a success rate of over 90% for those cases that have gone to hearing.
Advising Social Finance
Advising Social Finance, a nonprofit organisation that partners with the government, the social sector and the financial community to find better ways to tackle social problems. MoFo has worked with Social Finance on various projects, including structuring a development impact bond focused on decreasing infant mortality in Cameroon.
Working with Not Beyond Redemption
Working with Not Beyond Redemption to help mothers who are in prison, or who have left prison, and need legal assistance to maintain their relationships with their children.
Assisting APPEAL
Assisting APPEAL, a charity and law practice that fights miscarriages of justice and advocates for reform of the criminal justice system, in overturning the life sentence of an individual who was wrongfully convicted.
A Standard Bearer for Diversity
For over 40 years, MoFo has been committed to creating a culture that respects and celebrates differences, while providing an inclusive environment where everyone’s contributions are valued. It is essential to who we are as a firm. By each bringing our diverse experiences to work, we strengthen the quality of the service that we provide to our clients, the legal profession and our communities.
We’ve been a long-time champion for diversity within the legal profession and take pride in our diverse workplace. We believe that lawyers with different backgrounds, interests and experiences work together to create better solutions and offer innovative perspectives for our clients. We continuously work to attract, develop and retain talented lawyers from all backgrounds.
Our London attorneys Brian Bates (Senior Counsel) and Trevor James (Partner) sit on the firmwide Diversity Strategy Committee, founded in 2003. The primary mission of the Committee is to recommend major diversity goals and objectives to our board of directors. We also have a number of active London affinity groups that collaborate with regional and global colleagues to deliver initiatives that are important to us.
London Diversity Intiatives
MoFo Together aims to address the barriers facing underrepresented communities (including ethnic minorities) by raising awareness and providing dedicated support to help every individual at Morrison Foerster live their potential. Valuing, respecting and celebrating cultural differences are fundamental to growing and sustaining a diverse workforce, improving the experience of underrepresented groups and looking at the role that each MoFo colleague has as allies to support. MoFo Together seeks to do this, and more, by spearheading initiatives to create an inclusive workplace for all through four pillars of inclusion, education, empowerment and representation.
MoFo Women holds regularly events addressing global topics and regional ones, with a packed agenda of programmes for women and allies. Based on the four pillars, their strategic approach ensures that topics facing women in the profession now and in the future are explored and openly discussed to enhance the support needed and available. Our senior female lawyers in London also play a role in the firm’s global Women’s Strategy Committee, which works closely with firm leadership, including the firm’s chair, firmwide managing partners and the board of directors to ensure that the advancement of women is a constant strategic priority.
MoFo London’s active LGBTQ+ affinity group brings together members of that community as well as its supporters. The LGBTQ+ affinity group provides a forum to discuss issues of concern to the LGBTQ+ community and works to advance networking opportunities within the London office and the broader firm, with clients and across the broader London business community. We’re proud that our chair emeritus was the first openly gay managing partner of an international law firm.
Healthy MoFo is our global firm initiative dedicated to creating awareness, promoting healthy habits and providing tools to support overall physical and mental workplace well-being. Our London Healthy MoFo group has developed an active programme, partnering with neuroscientists, psychologists, nutritionists and financial experts to provide information, resources and opportunities for discussion about topics that contribute to a healthy lifestyle.
Practice Areas + Industries
We advise clients on merger control and the foreign investment aspects of complex global transactions, as well as broader antitrust issues including investigations, abuse of dominance and complex vertical agreements. In addition, our team has extensive UK CMA experience, having acted for clients on a number of complex CMA investigations, both at Phase 1 and Phase 2, and having delivered multiple informal CMA clearances.
MoFo’s Business Restructuring and Insolvency Group is at the vanguard of the profession and handles, among other things, financial institutions’ restructurings, cross-border insolvencies, distressed real estate, insolvencies involving key intellectual property and hedge fund failures.
The London Capital Markets team advises investment banks, issuers, investors and other providers of financial services on national and international capital markets transactions, initial public offerings, financial regulation and private placement of shares, equity- and debt-linked instruments, bonds and structured products, as well as trading of securities. Our Capital Markets practice annually ranks as a leader in its field.
Our Digital and Technology Transactions Group is a destination practice. Many companies choose us specifically for large and complex technology-driven matters when their other outside counsel lack the capacity or expertise for such work. Our clients benefit from deep knowledge of lawyers in key markets around the world who are exclusively focused on the complex, cutting-edge technology and IP issues that present the greatest strategic challenges in the constantly evolving international technology marketplace, including AI and Digitalisation.
Our lawyers provide advice on all areas of UK and international employment and data privacy law. As industry experts on evolving privacy laws and regulations, as well as incident preparedness, response and data protection litigation, we advise the world’s largest multinationals on their most complex UK and global matters.
MoFo’s finance lawyers understand both local and cross-border finance markets. The team advises on all finance matters from debt capital markets, through private placements to the more traditional, but constantly changing, senior, second lien, unitranche and PIK financings, as well as special situations and growth equity debt financings across all asset types. We provide an exciting opportunity to work with a new and growing team that includes highly ranked and widely known lawyers.
Our lawyers have extensive contentious and non-contentious experience across the full spectrum of IP rights, including trade secrets, patents, trademarks, passing-off, copyright, designs, confidential information and domain names. They also have broad experience in handling a wide range of disputes and commercial matters, and manage worldwide trademark, design and patent portfolios. More broadly, the firm has a reputation as being a global IP and patent powerhouse.
A leader in complex, high-stakes disputes, our clients — whether multinationals or early-stage tech companies — entrust us with their most difficult legal issues. We understand our clients’ businesses, identify potential areas of legal exposure, devise strategies to manage risk and, when appropriate, resolve disputes short of trial. We pride ourselves on our ability to achieve our clients’ business and litigation objectives in the most effective and cost-efficient manner.
Morrison Foerster is a leader in advising parties on mergers, acquisitions and strategic and financial alliances. Our attorneys have extensive experience advising both publicly traded and privately held companies in connection with these transactions. MoFo’s global 250-lawyer corporate/M&A practice is renowned for its industry experience and its handling of complex, high-value cross-border transactions. In 2022, we advised on 167 M&A transactions, with 17 deals valued at $1 billion+. We have worked on some of the highest-profile technology M&A deals in the market and were awarded “Deal of the Year 2022” by LexisNexis Legal Awards.
MoFo’s global real estate practice boasts award-winning teams across Europe, Asia, and the United States, with exemplary experience in guiding clients through all stages of the real estate investment cycle, including the formation of private equity real estate funds and fund platforms, equity syndications, multi-investor club deals, joint ventures, acquisitions, investments, financings, development, dispositions and exits, across a broad range of asset classes including office, retail, logistics and industrial real estate.
Our team has both an in-depth understanding of the issues that may confront our clients, and the tools and foresight to find pragmatic and novel solutions to those issues. Acting for a mix of investment banks, private equity funds, institutional investors and advisors — on the full spectrum of real estate-linked financing transactions — gives us visibility on the key developments and trends in this ever-evolving market.
Through the economic cycles of the last 20 years, our team has gained extensive knowledge of the real estate-linked finance markets across Europe. Acting for a mix of investment banks, private equity funds, institutional investors and advisors on the full spectrum of real estate-linked financing transactions gives us visibility on the key developments and trends in this ever-evolving market. Our team has both an in-depth understanding of the issues that may confront our clients and the tools to find pragmatic solutions to those issues. Recent experience includes advising on both UK and cross-border financing transactions, including senior and mezzanine facilities and loan-on-loan as well bilateral and syndicated facilities and fund finance.
Our London tax team is part of a global practice that enjoys a reputation for innovative tax planning and the successful resolution of important tax controversies. The group advises on mergers and acquisitions, international corporate tax planning, tax-efficient domestic and cross-border financing structures, capital markets transactions, joint ventures, private equity, planning for IP intensive companies, transfer pricing matters, outsourcing and matters relating to VAT, stamp duty and stamp duty reserve tax.
We provide a full range of legal services to the investment community, including the establishment and marketing of funds, making of investments and structuring of deals and acquisition financings and buy-outs. We also represent clients in all phases of venture capital and private equity activities including seed capital, first and later rounds of funding, debt financing, trade sales, initial public offerings and secondary sales.