Morrison & Foerster has hired a team of agency finance lawyers from DLA Piper in Washington DC to bolster its cross-border finance capabilities. 

The team is led by partners Greg Smith and Ann Lilienthal, who join the firm’s finance department. Their practice focuses on advising development finance institutions, multilateral agencies, regional development banks and export credit agencies on transactional matters across emerging markets, notably Latin America, Central and South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Those transactions typically involve the funding of infrastructure and other development projects in sectors such as energy, housing, education, mining, petrochemicals, telecoms and transportation, among others. The incoming team also includes of counsel Amala Nath and associate Christopher Pearson.

Jennifer Marines, co-chair of MoFo’s finance department, said: “Greg and Ann are widely regarded as global leaders in finance. They provide elite service to agency and other lending institutions on some of the most complex and sophisticated projects around the globe. Adding Greg and Ann’s team presents tremendous opportunities for MoFo, particularly in connection with our existing energy and infrastructure projects platforms in the US, Asia, and Latin America.”

During Smith’s time at DLA Piper he was US co-chair of its projects and infrastructure team and US chair of agency finance. Lilienthal has worked together with Smith for more than eight years in the agency finance space.

Smith said: “I have always been impressed by the professionalism, collegiality and ability to navigate complex, cross-border projects of the MoFo attorneys I have known. MoFo has long been regarded as a firm of exceptional sophistication, and a leader in the international transactional space in particular, and as a result it provides a perfect home for the continued growth of our group and an ideal place for us to continue serving the agency lender community.”

The team’s arrival adds to the firm’s growing finance and projects coverage, following recent finance partner hires in New York, California and Asia. The firm has also now added seven partners to its Washington office since the start of the year, including former Trump White House lawyer Stacy Cline Amin and former Department of Justice Lawyer and lead prosecutor during Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation Brandon Van Grack.