MoFo Hires Two Senior Governmental Lawyers

Morrison & Foerster has announced the hiring of two senior in-house governmental lawyers in Washington, D.C, following the news that John Smith is set to arrive from the Treasury and Lisa Phelan will join from the DOJ.

John Smith arrives following a 19 year governmental career, first as a prosecutor in the DOJ and most recently serving as the director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). While director of the office, he played a key role in the development, implementation and enforcement of governmental sanctions against nations including Iran, Russia, North Korea and Syria. He will cohead the firm's national security practice and advise clients on steering a course through the Trump administration's sanctions policy.

His arrival was welcomed by current practice cohead John Carlin, who remarked: “The U.S. government’s new sanctions enforcement, with its intensified focus on Russia, Iran, China and North Korea, is having an unprecedented impact on U.S. and global financial institutions and operating companies. I know from my experience working with John in government that there is no one who is better positioned to help companies navigate the new sanctions environment.”

Meanwhile, the firm also revealed that it had hired longstanding DOJ lawyer Lisa Phelan to its antitrust and white-collar practice groups. Phelan most recently served as the chief of the national criminal enforcement and Washington Criminal I sections of the DOJ's antitrust division, having joined the agency as a prosecutor immediately after law school in 1986. Over her distinguished governmental career Phelan oversaw investigations and trials on a wide array of domestic and global cartel issues, prosecuting more than 300 criminal cases.

Firm chair Larren Nashelsky hailed her arrival as a coup for the firm, saying: “I am delighted to welcome Lisa to MoFo. With Lisa’s outstanding experience, her leaving the government as the senior most lawyer on criminal antitrust and cartel matters represents a rare opportunity to substantially enhance our offerings in those areas.” 

Sneha Ashitkar