Morrison & Foerster (MoFo) has hired a four-partner litigation team from Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw for its New York office.

The team is led by Dennis Orr, a prominent player in the New York litigation market who has handled more than 30 federal and state court trials.

The other partners in the group are Thomas Mueller, Grant Esposito and Stefan Engelhardt. All four have worked together for 15 years, initially at Shearman & Sterling, before joining Mayer Brown.

They have a broad commercial litigation practice with an emphasis on private securities litigation, antitrust, accountant liability and product liability work as well as experience of arbitration and alternative dispute resolution.

Mueller, who represents clients in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, served as co-head of the New York litigation practice at Mayer Brown.

Charles Kerr, chair of MoFo's New York litigation practice, commented: "The group has a particularly impressive track record in securities, product liability and antitrust cases that will be invaluable to our national work in these areas, and they add a strong European and cross-border component that complements the firm's reach in Asia."

Orr said: "My partners and I chose Morrison & Foerster… for its broad community of practice strengths, the national scope of its securities litigation work and its international platform."

The team's cases include advising current and former directors of American International Group in ongoing securities litigation, advising on one of the biggest antitrust price-fixing cases in the US in the Vitamin Antitrust Litigation and representing Ernst & Young Canada and US on matters including securities fraud litigation and negligence claims.