Continuing to solidify its reputation in the China private equity space for handling innovative and high-value transactions, Morrison Foerster has established significant expertise in key economic sectors, spanning technology, life sciences, data, education, and real estate. One of those leading the practice from Hong Kong is Thomas Chou, whose practice focuses on venture capital investment in the biotech industry throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Global co-chair of PE Marcia Ellis is another significant player in Hong Kong, handling significant transactions for global powerhouses such as SoftBank, Macquarie and Celadon. Maureen Ho is particularly well regarded for advising PE and real estate funds across a broad range of transactions, including pre-IPO investments, bolt-on acquisitions and leveraged buyouts. Ruomu Li departed to join Cooley LLP in December 2022.
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Very impressed by the MoFo team. Led by Marcia Ellis, the team anticipated issues, prepared us well, and brought their expertise to all kinds of scenarios that we ran into.’
‘Marcia Ellis, leader of the group, is always the consummate legal advisor, combining her great legal mind, personality, strong commercial sense and decades of experience handling the most difficult or pioneering deals around the world. Can’t possibly ask for a better person to represent our interest.'
Key clients
- Ark Pacific Capital
- Ally Bridge Group
- Alibaba Group
- Affirma Capital Managers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
- Ascendent Capital Partners
- Bain Capital Credit
- BlackRock
- C2 Capital
- Celadon Partners
- Farallon Capital Asia
- GLP
- Intudo Ventures
- Hony Capital
- Macquarie
- PAGAC Tea Holdings I Ltd.
- NewQuest Capital Partners
- Prax Capital
- Princeton Digital Group
- Serenity Capital
- SoftBank Group Corp
- SoftBank Vision Fund
- Silver Crest Acquisition Corp.
- Vectr Ventures
Work highlights
- Advised SoftBank Group Corp. and SoftBank Vision Fund on the acquisition of a substantial interest in Arm China.
- Advised Silver Crest Acquisition Corporation on its successful completion of $1.4bn business combination with TH International Limited.
- Represented Ally Bridge Group in various growth, late stage and public life sciences investments across the US and Europe, including as lead investor in connection with the $101m Series B financing of Endeavor BioMedicines.
Lawyers
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Marcia Ellis, Thomas Chou