Blank Rome Adds Tax Team from Morrison & Foerster

A team of tax lawyers from Morrison & Foerster, including one of the co-chairs of its tax department, have joined Blank Rome in New York.

Craig Fields, co-chair of MoFo’s tax department and chair of the firm’s state and local tax group, made the jump along with partners Nicole Johnson and Mitchell Newmark. The trio joined the firm on Feb. 15. Hollis Hyans, senior counsel at at MoFo, will join the firm in early March.

Fields will serve as the co-chair of Blank Rome’s tax, benefits, and private client practice group and will also lead its state and local tax practice.

“Blank Rome’s national platform is vast, and we look forward to tapping into the firm’s deep bench of experienced attorneys to counsel clients through the complexity of state and local tax issues and proactively manage and control their tax concerns,” Fields said in a statement.

Fields joined MoFo in 1991 and his practice focuses on litigation and planning related to state and local tax matters. He has represented clients in state and local tax controversies before administrative and judicial courts throughout the U.S. Clients have included Kohl’s Department Stores, and Agilent Technologies, as well as the former chief financial officer of Colgate-Palmolive.

Newmark joined MoFo in 2003 after a six-year stint as deputy attorney general in the New Jersey Attorney General’s office where he represented the state in taxation, investment, pension, insurance, and banking litigation matters.

Johnson joined MoFo in 2010 as an associate after several years as a manager at EY. She became partner at the firm in early 2019 while Hyans has spent over 30 years at MoFo counseling clients on state and local tax litigation planning.

“We wish Craig Fields, Mitchell Newmark, Nicole Johnson, and Hollis Hyans well in their new endeavors,” said a MoFo spokesperson, adding that MoFo is well positioned to meet its clients needs and continue its strategic growth in New York.