Morgan Lewis offices in downtown Philadelphia. Photo Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

After a little more than two years at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, corporate and transactional partners Eric Hwang and Christopher Rose are on the move again, this time to Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

Morgan Lewis, an Am Law 100 firm with Philadelphia roots that has rapidly expanded in recent years, announced Wednesday its addition of both lawyers as members of its global corporate transactions team. Hwang will be based out of the firm's offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto while Rose will split his time between its outposts in Century City and Silicon Valley.

Christopher Rose.

“Morgan Lewis has been on our radar for quite some time now,” Rose said. “We've been really excited about [the firm]. They have such an enormous, rapidly growing corporate practice. We found that very attractive.”

Rose added that one of the main reasons why he and Hwang wanted to join Morgan Lewis was the opportunity to work with Steven Browne, a former leader of now-defunct Bingham McCutchen who currently serves as chair of Morgan Lewis' corporate and business transactions practice. Browne, who is also now a managing partner of Morgan Lewis' Boston office, had done a lot of work with Hwang when the latter spent roughly five years in-house at Oracle Corp.

Rose, who began his legal career as a Boston-based associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, said he looks forward to continuing to work closely with Hwang.

“Eric and I have built a practice together [and have] worked together now for over five years,” Rose said. “The majority of our practice and clients are in Northern California. I expect that with the Morgan Lewis platform, our Southern California client [base] will expand over time.”

Both Hwang and Rose practiced at White & Case for close to four years before making the move to Wilmer in 2016. The two lawyers also have in-house experience at major corporations, having both joined White & Case in 2012 from Oracle and Coda Holdings Inc., the latter a privately held maker of electric vehicles and energy storage systems where Rose served as senior vice president of corporate development and general counsel.

At Oracle, Hwang served as senior corporate counsel for acquisitions and director of corporate development between 2007 and 2012. He helped the software giant set up its in-house M&A and infrastructure team. His practice focuses on advising health care, life sciences and technology companies, as well as investment banks and private equity and venture capital firms, on joint ventures and cross-border M&A deals.

Eric Hwang.

“We are able to give clients more practical, more timely and relevant advice, just because we have been in those roles,” said Hwang about his in-house expertise.

Rose, on the other hand, counsels public and private clients on M&A deals, initial public offerings, joint ventures and venture capital and private equity investments. Before returning to private practice, he spent nearly two years at Coda in Los Angeles. Rose's primary responsibilities at the company included financing, acquisitions and negotiating international transactions and joint ventures, such as Coda's 2012 agreement with Great Wall Motors Co. of China to develop affordable electric cars vehicles.

Rose also spent nearly three years as an associate general counsel at Fidelity National Financial Inc. before joining Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto as of counsel in 2007. He led the legal aspects of more than 30 acquisitions and strategic investments for the financial services firm, Rose said.

“As lawyers who have worked at the highest levels of business, Eric and Chris bring to our clients a fundamental understanding of what it takes to craft a successful deal,” said Jami Wintz McKeon, chair of Morgan Lewis, in a statement announcing their hire. “They exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit of California, and will work with our clients on all aspects of growing and developing their businesses, from initial financing and startup through acquisition and sale.”

Morgan Lewis has been deliberately extending its services to the life sciences and technology industries on the West Coast and Midwest. Earlier this week, the 1,844-lawyer firm added a seven-partner intellectual property team from McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Morgan Lewis, which took in $1.86 billion in gross revenue last year, has also recently recruited a former top federal prosecutor in Kenneth Polite Jr. for its home office in Philadelphia, as well as insurance regulatory expert Scott Fischer in New York.

In February, Morgan Lewis landed three Baker McKenzie partners to build out its tax practice in the Bay Area and Chicago, the same month that the firm welcomed back former partner Philip Miscimarra from a five-year stint on the National Labor Relations Board. Morgan Lewis has made other lateral hires this year in Chicago and Washington, D.C., while also seeing some partners leave its ranks for Mayer Brown in the nation's capital and Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in New York.

A Morgan Lewis spokeswoman said that the firm currently has 320 lawyers in California, as well as 450 lawyers worldwide in its corporate business transactions group.