Morgan Lewis & Bockius has hired a four-lawyer private investment funds team from Morrison & Foerster in London, the firm announced on Tuesday.

The team includes partners Oliver Rochman and Rob Mailer, and two associates.

Both Rochman and Mailer spent over three years as partners at Morrison & Foerster. Rochman joined the firm in 2016 from Proskauer Rose where he was a partner in the private investment funds team for five years.

Meanwhile, Mailer was previously a partner at King & Wood Mallesons for close to 12 years before joining Morrison & Foerster's private investment funds team in 2017.

Both of them advise sponsors and investors on private investment fund formation, restructuring and fundraising.

Morgan Lewis's chair, Jami McKeon, said in a statement: "Their comprehensive experience and skills will be of great value to our investment fund and institutional investor clients as they navigate through this period of uncertainty and look ahead to future opportunities."

It's the second partner departure for MoFo in the past couple of months. In March, the firm's former London head of corporate and global co-chair of M&A Graeme Sloane left the firm to work alongside one of his life sciences clients, which is developing a treatment for COVID-19.

Last month, Morgan Lewis hired a M&A partner from Squire Patton Boggs in Frankfurt to work with its cross-border transactions team.

The team hire comes amid a period of uncertainty and financial disruption for City law firms. While most of its London competitors have taken measures to protect their finances, such as cash calls, salary cuts and recruitment freezes, Morgan Lewis has raised pay for its global global business services staff by 2%.

A spokesperson for Morrison & Foerster said in a statement: "We wish Oliver Rochman and Rob Mailer well in their new endeavours."

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