Morrison & Foerster has hired John Moore from UK rival Herbert Smith.
Moore, who joins the firm as a partner in its corporate & capital markets practice, is also currently serving as the Deputy Chairman of the Listing Committee of the Main Board of the Growth Enterprise Market of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and has acted on some of the region’s largest listings of the past few years. Moore’s appointment brings the total number of partners in the firms Hong Kong office to seven. The firm has 46 partners across its five Asian offices (Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo).
“John is on everyone’s short list of the leading U.S. securities lawyers in Hong Kong,” said Ven Tan, Managing Partner of MoFo’s Hong Kong Office. “His reputation in the highly competitive arena for IPOs is stellar, and he is equally well-known for his general corporate advisory work. He is a great addition to the firm.”
Prior to joining Herbert Smith, Moore was an executive director and senior counsel at Goldman Sachs, with primary legal coverage responsibility for its investment banking division in Asia ex-Japan. In his role at Goldmans, Moore was responsible for covering the investment banking division’s full range of products, notably capital markets transactions including SEC-registered, Rule 144A/Regulation S, and Rule 144 offerings, as well as M&A transactions.
The appointment of Moore comes only days after MoFo lost the head of its Hong Kong Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) practice, Nigel Stamp, to Eversheds.
