Morrison & Foerster Partner Moves to Mori Hamada

Former Morrison & Foerster Tokyo partner Tony Grundy has joined Japanese law firm Mori Hamada & Matsumoto as a senior of counsel in Singapore.

Grundy, who focuses on capital markets, structured finance and bank lending, mainly advises financial institutions, borrowers and trustees.

He joined Morrison & Foerster in 2008 from Linklaters, where he was a partner for more than two decades. From 2000 to 2007, Grundy was managing partner of Linklaters' Tokyo office, which he helped launch in 1987. He also previously headed the U.K. firm's Singapore office and worked stints in its London and Hong Kong offices.

Mori Hamada opened its Singapore office in 2011 to target Japanese companies expanding in Southeast Asia. The Tokyo-based firm, which has 336 lawyers, now counts six lawyers in Singapore, including Grundy.

In a separate move, Mori Hamada has announced that the former head of Japan's top competition authority is joining the firm as a non-lawyer adviser in its Tokyo headquarters.

Kazuhiko Takeshima served as chairman of the Japan Fair Trade Commission from 2002 until last year. During that time, he successfully pushed for more aggressive prosecutions and stiffer penalties for antitrust violations. Prior to leading the JFTC, Takeshima also held a series of other senior government positions, including heading the national tax agency and serving as director general of the economic planning agency.

Longtime Willkie Farr Attorney Joins Morrison Cohen

By Leigh Jones All Articles 

New York Law Journal

November 9, 2012

Ninety-attorney Morrison Cohen has brought aboard a longtime Willkie Farr & Gallagher attorney to its litigation department.

Terence McLaughlin, 42, joined New York's Morrison Cohen as a partner on November 1. He had worked at Willkie Farr for 17 years, first as a summer associate and, starting in 2005, as a partner.

McLaughlin, who represents financial institutions, hedge funds, corporations and business executives in litigation, said he liked that Morrison Cohen focuses on middle-market clients, a concentration better aligned with his practice.

"As a relatively young person, I was looking at how to go about building a business at a $900-plus billable rate," he said. "I felt that [Morrison Cohen] was a more interesting platform."

A spokesman for Willkie Farr did not respond to a request for comment.

Morrison Cohen's practices include corporate law, bankruptcy, employment law, litigation, real estate, tax and intellectual property.

David Scherl, managing partner of Morrison Cohen, said that McLaughlin would play a "significant role" in servicing the firm's existing clients. "We also expect that institutional clients that have worked with Terry prior to joining us will welcome our dramatically more rational billing rates," Scherl said.

Morrison & Foerster Readies Singapore Return

Morrison & Foerster is returning to Singapore after a three-year hiatus.

The San Francisco-based firm is finalizing the necessary regulatory approvals for what will initially be a two-partner operation, and expects to launch early next year.

Asia managing partner Eric Piesner, currently based in Tokyo, will relocate to Singapore to lead the office. Fellow Tokyo partner Eric Roose will also make the move.

Piesner heads Morrison & Foerster's Asia real estate practice and focuses on advising banks and other institutional investors on major property deals. Last December, he advised Singapore-listed Global Logistics Properties on a $1.6 billion joint venture with China Investment Corp. to acquire warehouse properties in Japan.

Roose is a leading international tax specialist who joined Morrison & Foerster last year from the Tokyo office of White & Case.

The firm closed a previous Singapore office, which opened in 1997, in 2009. It is not alone in rethinking Singapore, though. U.K. firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer last month announced its own return to Singapore, after closing there in 2007.

Piesner says a growing amount of legal work at the firm -- from dispute resolution and private equity to mergers and acquisitions and tax -- has a "Singapore nexus" and many of the firm's clients are there, Piesner says.

"We see that part of the world as important for our clients and ourselves," he says.

The firm will start with corporate, real estate, tax, fund formation and private equity, according to Piesner, but intends to add dispute resolution, energy and project finance. A number of associate transfers to Singapore are expected once the office has been established, and Morrison & Foerster intends to recruit lateral hires as well.

The new office will operate under a foreign-law license, and will not practice Singapore law. Morrison & Foerster did not apply for a Qualifying Foreign Law Practice license, Piesner says.

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Morrison & Foerster Adds Hong Kong Partner

Morrison & Foerster has added a corporate partner to its Hong Kong office.

Jeremy Hunt, formerly a partner in the Hong Kong office of Allen & Overy, specializes in Hong Kong capital markets transactions and private equity mergers and acquisitions. Earlier this year, he advised The Carlyle Group on its $2.65 billion disposal of part of its interest in China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co. Ltd.

Hunt was a partner at Allen & Overy for more than 14 years. He relocated to Hong Kong from the firm's London headquarters in 2007.

The addition of Hunt follows the firm's hiring of former Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partner Thomas Man in Beijing. San Francisco-based Morrison & Foerster last year also boosted its Hong Kong capital markets practice with the hires of former Herbert Smith partners John Moore and Melody He-Chen.

Keith Wetmore, the firm's outgoing chairman, says Hunt will help Morrison & Foerster expand its private equity practice in the region.