Morrison & Foerster LLP (also known as MoFo) is an American multinational law firm headquartered in San Francisco, California, with 17 offices located throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe.
Contents
History
In 1883 Alexander Francis Morrison (1856–1921), an alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley, and Hastings College of the Law, founded the firm's oldest ancestor in San Francisco under the name O’Brien & Morrison. His aim was to practice "principally in the line of corporation business."
In 1891 Morrison formed a partnership with Constantine E.A. Foerster (1860–1898). However, Foerster died in 1898 at age 37 from tuberculosis. After his death, other attorneys came in as partners and the firm's name changed several times over the next two decades.
By late 1924 the firm of Morrison, Dunne & Brobeck had seven partners and eight associates. On November 29, 1924, everyone arrived at work to find on their desks a letter signed by partners Herman Phleger, William I. Brobeck and Peter F. Dunne which announced the "reorganization" of the firm. By "reorganization" they actually meant dissolution of the firm, effective December 31, 1924. Morrison's widow May was furious at the three men for wrecking the firm which she regarded as her late husband's legacy and prohibited them from using the Morrison name.
A 1996 history of the Brobeck firm claimed that Phleger had persuaded Brobeck and Dunne that the law firm would be more profitable if they ejected the four other partners, so the three of them suddenly fired and locked out the four other partners, who then had to break into the office with a fire axe to retrieve their files. However, this story may be apocryphal because the Morrison firm's files include documents showing that the attorneys had attempted to provide for the "orderly dissolution of the old firm", the transfer of its files, and the settlement of fees for pending matters.
The firm's attorneys organized two new law firms which began operations in January 1925: Dunne, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison (later renamed Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison) and Morrison, Hohfeld, Foerster, Shuman & Clark. The "Foerster" of the latter firm was not the late Constantine E.A. Foerster, but his son Roland, who had joined the Morrison firm as an associate in 1916. May Morrison was affectionate towards the four founding partners of the latter firm and actively assisted them in creating a new firm to carry forward the legacy of the old one. They were the "favorites" of her late husband Alexander, whom she called "Aleck", and she thus referred to them as "Aleck's Boys".
Starting in the 1920s and 1930s, the firm developed a deep client roster, which brought stability to sustain the firm over the next three decades.
In the 1960s a group of young partners—John Austin, Dick Archer, and Bob Raven—set out to reinvigorate the firm in response to stagnant revenue and changes in the business and social environment. The strategy, resulting from the so-called "Schroeder's meetings" because they were held at the San Francisco restaurant, included ideas for modernizing the practice of law. The partners replaced outmoded policies and insisted on budgets and operational plans. The firm started to recruit at law schools and began hiring women lawyers. In time, the firm rebuilt its litigation practice by training new associates on small bank cases.
In 1974 the firm expanded outside San Francisco and opened an office in Los Angeles to better meet the needs of longtime client Crocker National Bank.
Soon after, the firm expanded again, opening an office in Washington, D.C. in 1979 and its first non-U.S. office in London in 1980.
In 1987 the firm merged with New York-based litigation company Parker Auspitz and opened its Tokyo office.
The firm merged again in 1991, this time with Ciotti & Murashige. A decade later, Morrison & Foerster became one of the largest international law firms in Tokyo when it merged with Ito & Mitomi.
In 2003 Morrison & Foerster received their first 100% rating on HRC's Corporate Equality Index indicating they met all 7 of that year's criteria for having a positive record "toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors".
In November 2013 the firm expanded its European presence by opening an office in Berlin. The following month, the German team advised Axel Springer, one of Europe's largest media companies, on its acquisition of N24 Media, Germany's largest independent producers of information.
In 2022 Morrison & Foerster was a founding member of the Legal Alliance for Reproductive Rights, a coalition of United States law firms offering free legal services to people seeking and providing abortions in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade.
In 2025 Morrison Foerster has been named a Firm of the Year in the five practice areas listed below by China Business Law Journal (CBLJ) as part of its 2025 China Business Law Awards.
Clients
The firm was the lead bankruptcy counsel to Residential Capital. ResCap. and secured their chapter 11 plan.
In July 2013 Morrison & Foerster represented SoftBank in its $21.6 billion acquisition of a 78 percent stake in Sprint Nextel. According to The Wall Street Journal, the transaction was "one of the most complex and unusual deals in the annals of takeovers." The firm also represented SoftBank in Alibaba's U.S. IPO—the largest IPO in history.
Morrison & Foerster Foundation
Formed in 1986, the Morrison & Foerster Foundation is a charitable foundation funded mainly by the firm's partners. In total, the Foundation has donated $44 million to nonprofit organizations since its inception.
In 2015 Law360 recognized Morrison & Foerster as one of the 10 Most Charitable Law Firms.
Notable affiliates
Beth Brinkmann, former assistant to the solicitor general of the U.S. from 1993 until 2001, and who served as a partner until 2009.
Drew S. Days III, who served as the United States Solicitor General from 1993 to 1996, and who served as of counsel until 2011.
LaShann M. DeArcy, judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York since 2015
Ketanji Brown Jackson, justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Formerly judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 2013 to 2021, former commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, who served as of counsel until 2013.
Justin Fairfax, who served as lieutenant governor of the U.S. state of Virginia from 2018 to 2022.
Paul Goldstein, Stanford Law School professor and an expert on intellectual property law, currently serves as of counsel.
Shirley Hufstedler, first U.S. Secretary of Education from 1979 to 1981, who was of counsel.
Tony West, former acting United States Associate Attorney General, who served as a partner until 2009.