Morrison Foerster has boosted its London partnership with the hire of a tech transactions and TMT M&A trio from Morgan Lewis and Baker McKenzie.
Will Holder has joined after nine years as a partner at Baker McKenzie, while partner Mike Pierides has moved over from Morgan Lewis alongside Oliver Bell, who has made partner on the move. MoFo said it expected a team of associates to follow Pierides and Bell in the coming weeks.
Their arrival means MoFo has added 10 lawyers to its London partnership over the past year through a combination of lateral hires and internal promotions, with the run of hires spanning litigation, tax, private equity, leveraged finance and fintech as well as M&A.
Firm chair, Eric McCrath, said the incoming trio “reflects our continued investment in our core tech M&A and technology transactions capabilities, and builds on the firm’s broader growth across key sectors including AI, fintech and data centres. Together, these additions strengthen our cross-border platform and our ability to advise clients on their most complex, technology-driven mandates”.
Holder brings a tech and media-focused M&A practice spanning public and private M&A, joint ventures, private equity and portfolio company transactions. He has particular experience representing music and fintech clients and has worked on deals including the $1.9bn acquisition by Universal Music Group of EMI from Citigroup and the sale of Parlophone Records to Warner Music.
Pierides brings experience across technology and commercial transactions, advising on outsourcings, data privacy and cybersecurity, strategic restructurings, “GPU-as-a-service” transactions and technology-mandates transactions such as licensing and “as-a-service” arrangements. He has spent the past eight years as a partner at Morgan Lewis, where he was deputy leader of its technology, outsourcing and commercial group, and before that was a partner at Pillsbury and Pinsent Masons.
Meanwhile, Bell focuses on technology-led transactions, large-scale IT outsourcing and data centre-focused mandates. He has spent the past seven years at Morgan Lewis, having earlier practised at Dentons and the national UK firm TLT.
Including the latest hires, MoFo has around 30 partners and senior counsel in London, according to its website.
The 1,000-lawyer firm grew gross revenue 9.2% to surpass $1.5bn and net income 6.6% to $567m in 2025, according to figures published by Law.com, citing steady growth in both litigation and corporate groups, particularly in technology-heavy sectors.
The firm kick-started 2026 with an office launch in Seattle to house a 15-partner litigation team hired from Perkins Coie, ahead of the latter’s merger with Ashurst later this year.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
