MoFo DC office Morrison & Foerster's soon-to-be-former offices in Washington, D.C. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Washington Wrap is a weekly look at industry news and Big Law moves shaping the legal business in Washington, D.C. Send news tips and lateral moves to Ryan Lovelace at [email protected].

Morrison & Foerster is preparing to close its Northern Virginia office and merge it with its Washington, D.C., location when the firm relocates its D.C. office next year.

Larren Nashelsky, the firm's chair, said in a statement that a single office "will enable us to further increase collaboration across teams, provide even better service to clients, and showcase the breadth of our capabilities."

"There are numerous compelling reasons to have one office location in the D.C. area, with that space in Washington," Nashelsky said in a statement. "Building the firm's capabilities in D.C. has been one of our key strategic priorities over recent years and we have experienced tremendous growth. In fact, in the last five years, we have added over 20 partners to our D.C. office."

He added, "Furthermore, our offices in D.C. and Northern Virginia are very close to each other. It simply makes sense to have one office in the mid-Atlantic region by the end of next year and to have that presence in the heart of D.C."

This year Morrison & Foerster is celebrating its 40th anniversary in Washington, which was the third-ever office the firm opened and its first outside of California. Since 2015, the firm estimates that it has grown its total attorneys in D.C. by approximately 25%.

The firm's existing D.C. office is at 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW near the campus of George Washington University in Foggy Bottom. The new building is about a half-mile north at 2100 L Street, in the same neighborhood but on the other side of K Street. Morrison & Foerster is planning to occupy four floors, totaling more than 80,000 square feet, in a new "state-of-the-art" building that construction began on last year.

Revenues at the firm dipped slightly to $1.04 billion last year after a stellar 2017, while changes to the partnership compensation system yielded a 14% jump in profits per equity partner of nearly $2 million. In Washington, Morrison & Foerster said it has looked to develop several practices, including its corporate, global risk and crisis management, national security, investigations and white collar defense, government contracts, antitrust, and financial services practices.

The firm has bolstered these practices in recent years with the additions of prominent lawyers such as John Carlin, former top official for national security at the Justice Department, in 2017; and John Smith, former director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control; and Lisa Phelan, a DOJ veteran with more than a quarter-century of experience in the department's antitrust division, in 2018.

This year, the most prominent personnel change for the firm in the region was like the departure of Justin Fairfax, a former partner and current lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Fairfax took leave from the firm earlier this year amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. The firm told The National Law Journal in a statement earlier this year that it had investigated Fairfax and found no evidence of misconduct during his time at the firm.

Fairfax has pursued litigation in response to the allegations, including filing a $400 million defamation lawsuit against CBS Corp. last month that accuses the network of smearing his name.

Law Firm Moves, News and Notes

A Zeughauser Group report released this week projected that the D.C. legal market is poised to become a hotbed for mergers, acquisitions and combinations in the years to come.

The consultancy surveyed 36 managing partners and senior leaders of law firms in D.C. with fewer than 150 attorneys and found an overwhelming majority, 58%, had been approached about a combination with another firm in the previous year. The same D.C. law firm leaders were reluctant about making such deals, however, with just 20% saying they were open to a combination with another firm in the next three to five years.

The Independent Women's Forum announced the formation of the Independent Women's Law Center this week, led by director Jennifer Braceras, a former commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Braceras said in a statement that the group plans to push back against the "progressive women's groups [that] have occupied the legal field, urging courts to enact their agenda by judicial fiat and smearing nominees to the federal bench who are committed to applying the law as written."

Erin Hawley, of counsel at Kirkland & Ellis and wife of U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, will serve as the center's senior legal fellow.

Speaking of Kirkland, the firm announced 141 partner promotions this week, including 12 in Washington, D.C.

Kirkland's dozen new D.C. partners belong to a variety of practices, including antitrust/competition, appellate litigation, environmental transactions, intellectual property litigation, litigation and restructuring.

Hunton Andrews Kurth added Craig Lee as a partner in its competition and consumer practice this week.

Lee leads Hunton's cartel and antitrust investigations team and formerly ran the global cartel task force at Baker McKenzie.

Barnes & Thornburg announced the formation of a new university and professional athletics practice based in Washington, D.C.

The team will be led by a duo that's new to the firm: of counsel Ellis T. "Skip" Prince and sports management adviser Steve Pederson.