Eliot Adelson, Morrison & Foerster.

Morrison & Foerster continues adding to its antitrust litigation capabilities, bringing on longtime Kirkland & Ellis partner Eliot Adelson.

Adelson joined Morrison & Foerster's San Francisco office Monday as a partner in its global antitrust law practice and investigations and white-collar defense group. Prior to the move, Adelson spent over 15 years at Kirkland.

He called his new firm "the perfect platform for my practice" with an "outstanding reputation for litigation work."

"It is a market leader here in San Francisco. It has both national and a global footprint in a whole variety of industries, including tech," Adelson said.

Adelson works with U.S. and Japanese companies. He currently represents Japanese global manufacturer Murata Manufacturing in a putative class action alleging that certain electronics manufacturers conspired to fix the prices of inductors, according to the court documents. He is also advising Nexstar Media Group in a putative class action alleging that the defendant companies conspired to fix the prices of local television advertising. And he represented auto parts company Tenneco Inc. in several antitrust investigations.

"Over the last 10 years or so, or even longer, there has been a real focus on looking at Asian companies, particularly Japanese companies' cartel behavior. In addition, more recently, the DOJ has been focusing on tech companies," Adelson said, "The combination of the two [trends] makes San Francisco and the Bay Area one of the key markets for antitrust work."

Adelson is the fifth lateral partner Morrison & Foerster has added to its antitrust law practice group in the last year. Also in San Francisco, the firm recently added Bonnie Lau, a civil and criminal antitrust litigator from Dentons.

"The addition of both Eliot and Bonnie substantially expands our antitrust capabilities in San Francisco at a time when Northern California is a significant venue for antitrust litigation," Jeff Jaeckel, co-chair of Morrison & Foerster's global antitrust law practice, said in a statement. "Eliot's experience in Japan, combined with our market-leading presence in Tokyo, makes him a valuable addition to the firm."

Other recent additions to the group include Lisa Phelan, former chief of the National Criminal Enforcement and Washington Criminal I Sections of the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice; Daiske Yoshida, who is based in Tokyo and was previously at Latham & Watkins; and partner Vishal Mehta, who joined the Washington, D.C., office about a year ago from Baker Botts.

"There's just a huge market opportunity for us as a firm to position ourselves to support clients as they face regulatory pressure, enforcement, and then follow-up civil suits—mostly in the U.S.," said Washington, D.C.-based partner David Cross, who is also a member of the firm's global antitrust practice.

"Eliot puts us in a great position to have feet on the ground, boots on the ground on the West Coast. With his presence, his ties and connections and the clients, it puts us in a particularly strong position, overseas as well," Cross added.

Firmwide, Morrison & Foerster has over 150 attorneys whose practices focus on investigations and more than 40 dedicated antitrust lawyers, the firm said Friday.

A spokesperson for Kirkland & Ellis said in an email Friday, "Eliot did strong work in our litigation practice and we wish him luck at his new law firm."

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