Tech Transaction Lawyer Becomes MoFo’s Newest Managing Partner

Morrison & Foerster tapped a San Francisco technology transactions attorney as the newest of its managing partners.

Tessa Schwartz, co-chair of MoFo’s technology transactions group, advises clients in areas such as software, cloud computing, social media, Internet, mobility and wireless and e-commerce. Schwartz’s practice focuses on guiding clients, including Autodesk Inc., VMware Inc. and Yahoo! Inc., on the intellectual property aspects of strategic transactions in mergers and acquisitions.

“The general proposition is sort of marrying technology with other areas, so whether it’s financial regulation or health care or energy, those are the places where you find that overlap with clean tech or fin tech or health tech and places where we’re going to nail it because basically we’re an IT powerhouse,” Schwartz said.

The UCLA law graduate will continue her IP and tech practices while serving as a managing partner. Schwartz’s clean technology work includes solar, energy efficiency, renewable energy and other sectors and sustainability issues.

“The clean tech work is the perfect combination for a technology lawyer who’s interested in sustainability,” especially with MoFo’s very strong technology practice, she said.

Schwartz joins Craig Martin as one of two global managing partners, Asian managing partner Eric Piesner and European managing partner Paul Friedman. Larren Nashelsky is chairman of MoFo, which has 17 offices and more than 1,000 attorneys.

The managing partner function is in part to identify and concentrate “on the practice areas that we should be expending resources on and increasing the connectedness with the different practice areas,” she said.

Schwartz said she’ll key in on global client service to identify opportunities for growth on a global basis.

“I think the focus for me is on how to deliver superlative client service first and foremost, and in order to do that, you have to be able to provide for your clients the legal services they need,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz, who joined MoFo in 1995 as a summer intern, started as a litigator in 1996 and worked on class-action litigation, antitrust, trademark and trade secrets. She began in the tech transaction practice during the dot-com days.

She succeeds Anna Erickson White, who after firmwide managing partner the last four years returns full-time to her litigation practice.