Morgan Lewis & Bockius has made its first lateral partner hire in London since last October, bringing in a finance partner from Morrison & Foerster (MoFo).

Chris Harrison joined the London office of Morgan Lewis on 20 July, becoming the first UK-qualified finance partner in the office.

Harrison had been at MoFo since 2005, when he arrived from Weil Gotshal & Manges to set up and develop a UK law finance practice. Prior to working at Weil, he spent time with Latham & Watkins.

Harrison advises financial institutions, sponsors and governments on cross-border finance issues and counts Warbus Pincus and Deutsche Bank as clients on recent transactions. His departure leaves MoFo without any UK-qualified partners in its financial transactions group.

At Morgan Lewis he will be the seventh partner in the firm's London business and finance practice and the twelfth in the office.

London managing partner, Bob Goldspink said: "We are delighted that Chris has joined us. He brings with him a market-leading reputation and significant international expertise in Europe, the Middle East and Far East which will build our global finance capability."