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MoFo Celebrates Pride Month

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As we begin our celebration of Pride Month, MoFo honors the many contributions made by members of the LGBTQ+ community and invites you to learn more about LGBTQ+ activism with respect to civil rights, mental health, education, and the arts. 

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As we begin our celebration of Pride Month, MoFo honors the many contributions made by members of the LGBTQ+ community and invites you to learn more about LGBTQ+ activism with respect to civil rights, mental health, education, and the arts. MoFo continually strives to provide a work environment where all employees feel respected, valued, and part of a vibrant community where everyone can bring their whole selves to work, openly and proudly. We will celebrate Pride Month on our MoFo+ blog and in our social media posts, with profiles highlighting our global LGBTQ+ Affinity Network Liaisons (ANLs), and longstanding leaders at MoFo: Finance senior of counsel and Europe ANL Brian Bates; Head Singapore Litigation partner and Asia ANL Daniel Levison; Capital Markets and Public Company Advisory & Governance partner and U.S. ANL John Owen; and Commercial Litigation and Trial partner and Asia ANL Chen Zhu.The LGBTQ+ Affinity Network, in collaboration with the D+I Team, is pleased to present special events during the month of June.On Friday, June 23, 2023, we are hosting a paint and sip event for the members of the LGBTQ+ Affinity Network. The LGBTQ+ Affinity Network actively supports the recruitment, engagement, retention, development, and advancement of our LGBTQ+ attorneys/employees across the firm.In honor of Pride Month, on Tuesday, June 20, we are hosting a conversation with <a href="https://andrewsolomon.com/andrew-solomon-biography/" target="_blank">Andrew Solomon</a>, a writer and lecturer on politics, culture, and psychology; winner of the National Book Award; and an activist in LGBTQ rights, mental health, and the arts. New York partner, Katherine Erbeznik will moderate the discussion. To be added to our mailing list, please complete this <a href="https://www2.mofo.com/l/323401/2023-04-14/8vvqc" target="_blank">form</a>.In honor of this month and the LGBTQ+ community, the Morrison & Foerster Foundation will donate over $20,000 across a variety of nonprofits including <a href="https://www.thetrevorproject.org/explore/?_gl=1*1pq003u*_gcl_au*MTE5ODMxMzAwMy4xNjg1NDg4Mzc2" target="_blank">The Trevor Project</a>, the <a href="https://transgenderlegal.org/" target="_blank">Transgender Legal Defense &amp; Education Fund</a>, and the <a href="https://nctcsf.org/" target="_blank">New Conservatory Theatre Center</a> in San Francisco. MoFo is proud to be a standard-bearer for LGBTQ+ equality in the legal profession for more than 30 years and to have elected the legal industry’s first openly gay chair in 2001. We hope to continue to be a leader in and champion for LGBTQ+ inclusion and invite you to join in celebrating Pride during the month of June.Please join us in celebrating during the month of June by visiting our <a href="https://together.mofo.com/" target="_blank">MoFo+ Blog</a>.

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Brian represents clients in a wide range of financing transactions, including private debt and equity placements, bank syndications, various bank finance products, high yield offerings, and mezzanine and LBO financings. He has a specialized practice representing non-U.S. entities that want to make cross-border private placements of securities to U.S. and other large financial institutions and pension funds.He has extensive experience in cross-border private placements and practices almost exclusively on the issuer side of the table.Brian’s private placement capabilities in issuer-side cross-border placement representation far exceed any other specialist cross-border private placement practice in both issuance value and number of issues. During the course of the last several years, with respect to overall issues and dollar volume, Brian led his group in the representation of issuances of approximately 30 percent of total cross-border USPP debt.In addition to having worked in private placement finance for well over 30 years, Brian continues to act as the sole issuer-side member of the Transactions Process Management Committee of the American College of Investment Counsel (ACIC) where he is a fellow. The ACIC is responsible for the development of new model forms for the cross-border private placement market.

Brian Bates

Senior Of Counsel

﻿Dan Levison is a partner at Morrison Foerster and co-Managing Partner of the Singapore office. He also heads its Litigation Department and leads the firm’s Ethics and Compliance regional practice in Asia. Dan counsels clients regarding compliance matters and conducts internal investigations and compliance reviews across the Asia-Pacific region, where he has over 24 years of experience. His practice has included work in many countries in Southeast Asia and beyond, including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Singapore.Clients say that Dan is “a highly skilled lawyer who specializes in managing large, complex internal investigations” and “very thoughtful and thorough, and extremely focused on giving high-quality advice across a broad range of issues.” Clients rely on his experience with highly sensitive and complex cross‑border matters, which have included fraud and corruption, cartel, and other competition matters, anti-money laundering, economic sanctions and export control, privacy and data security, and regulatory and product safety investigations. In addition, he assists clients with pre‑acquisition and third-party compliance due diligence and developing, reviewing, and implementing compliance policies, procedures, and training programs.Dan also focuses on complex commercial litigation and arbitration matters, with particular emphasis on the resolution of multi-jurisdictional disputes and has developed particular expertise regarding cross‑border electronic discovery matters. He has counselled clients in a range of matters involving contract disputes, business torts, antitrust, product liability, intellectual property, and other issues. Dan has represented clients in a variety of industries, including electronics and manufacturing, software, consulting and professional services, consumer goods, electronic commerce, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, sports and entertainment, transportation, construction and real estate, hospitality, insurance, and banking and financial services, among others. Dan is also a member of the firm’s COVID‑19 Task Force.Before moving to Singapore, Dan spent more than 12 years in MoFo’s Tokyo office, and clients continue to rely on him for his Japan-related expertise, for which he has been recognized by Chambers Global 2020, 2021, and 2022.Dan has been listed by Chambers Asia-Pacific every year for the last six years as a top practitioner (Band 1) in his field for Corporate Investigations/Anti-corruption. He is recognized as a leading individual for white-collar crime by Legal 500 Asia-Pacific from 2021 - 2024, and is listed as a litigation star by Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific. Dan has also been recommended as a global leader in Investigations in Singapore by Who’s Who Legal/Global Investigations Review every year since 2019.Dan is also a sought–after speaker and thought leader on anti–corruption, investigations, and compliance‑related topics.In addition to his practice, Dan serves on the firm’s Board of Directors and on its Diversity Strategy Committee, and plays a leadership role in some of the firm’s global diversity initiatives, notably, as a member of the Board of Directors of the firm’s pro bono client, Lawyers for LGBT & Allies Network, and he has been highly commended by Chambers for an Asia-Pacific Diversity & Inclusion Award 2020.<h4>Representative Experience</h4><ul><li>A multinational company in connection with an internal investigation into allegations of bribery in Indonesia.</li><li>A real estate investment trust in relation to a compliance risk assessment concerning a joint venture in India. </li><li>A U.S.-based company in an investigation into corruption and procurement–related irregularities in India. </li><li>A global technology company in relation to an investigation into allegations of conflicts of interest and accounting irregularities by local management in Southeast Asia.</li><li>Several Asia-based employees of financial institutions in internal and government corruption and money laundering investigations. </li><li>U.S.-based medical device manufacturer in investigation into allegations of bribery and fraud in Japan.</li><li>A multinational pharmaceutical company in investigations into allegations of irregularities in the conduct of clinical trials in Japan.</li><li>A U.S.-based company with respect to several Japan Fair Trade Commission investigations.</li><li>Providing a global financial institution with anti-corruption counselling with respect to its global private equity and venture capital investments.</li><li>Conducted pre-investment and pre-acquisition anti-corruption and compliance due diligence for U.S., Europe, and Asia-based multinational companies in numerous transactions across the Asia‑Pacific region and beyond. </li></ul>

Daniel Levison

Managing Partner, Singapore

John is a Capital Markets, Public Company Advisory & Governance, and Special Situations partner with more than 20 years of experience advising issuers, underwriters, and other market participants in a wide range of special situations, equity, and debt financing transactions. He has significant experience advising on refinancing and liability management transactions, initial public offerings, high yield and investment grade debt offerings, and private placements. John also regularly advises on structuring and executing cross border financing, liability management, and special situation transactions, having advised on matters involving a wide range of jurisdictions, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, France, India, Indonesia, Israel, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.  John has worked with a wide variety of companies across many industries, including consumer products, technology, life sciences, energy, telecommunications, and financial services. He has advised on transactions for issuers as diversified as Arm Holdings, RH (formerly Restoration Hardware), PepsiCo, Monster Beverage, Omnicom, Tate & Lyle, and Vonage.  In addition to routinely advising issuers, investors, and other market participants on the structuring and execution of debt capital markets transactions, having advised on aggregate financing transactions in excess of $50 billion in the last ten years, John also frequently collaborates with cross-practice teams to advise on and structure in-court and out-of-court restructuring and other liability management transactions. John has completed course work at the University of Cambridge on sustainable finance and serves on the firm’s ESG steering committee. He also serves on the firm’s diversity and inclusion committee as well as its New York hiring committee. John has regularly been recognized as an IFLR1000 notable practitioner and by The Legal 500 for his work on capital markets transactions. <h4>Representative Experience</h4><h5>Capital Raising Transactions</h5><ul><li>Arm Holdings plc, the world’s leading semiconductor IP company, in its blockbuster $5.22 billion USD IPO on Nasdaq, the largest IPO of 2023</li><li>Sprint Corp. in connection with its $1.0 billion guaranteed notes offering</li><li>Vonage in its $300 million convertible note offering</li><li>RH’s issuance of $300 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible notes</li><li>FTI Consulting in its $316.25 million convertible note offering</li><li>TransDigm Group in its offering of $500 million Senior Subordinated Notes by its UK subsidiary</li><li>Lodha Developers, a leading developer of luxury real estate in India, in its $200 million secured bond offering by its UK subsidiary</li></ul><h5>Special Situations</h5><ul><li>SoftBank Group’s investment in 6% senior notes issued by Fair Technologies</li><li>Counsel to an institutional senior secured noteholder in connection with an out-of-court exchange offer and recapitalization transaction by Associated Materials</li><li>Counsel to an ad hoc group of former noteholders in connection with the proposed initial public offering of Southeastern Grocers, following its chapter 11 bankruptcy</li><li>Counsel to the ad hoc group of senior secured noteholders, in the chapter 11 cases of EP Energy</li><li>Counsel to the ad hoc group of first lien noteholders, as noteholders and backstop DIP lenders, in the chapter 11 bankruptcy of Sanchez Energy</li><li>Lodha Developers International in its consent solicitation relating to $200 million of 12% Guaranteed Senior Notes</li><li>Sprint in connection with its $1.7 billion tender offers for 9.000% Guaranteed Notes and 8.375% Notes</li><li>Frontier Communication in the concurrent fixed price tender offers to purchase any and all of its 6.625% Senior Notes and any and all of its 7.875% Senior Notes, and in a modified Dutch auction tender offer to purchase up to $225 million aggregate principal amount of its 8.250% Senior Notes</li></ul>

John Owen

Partner

Chen is a partner whose practice focuses on government and internal investigations, cross-border enforcement matters and commercial litigation. He has extensive experience advising on U.S. economic sanctions, anti-money laundering, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), securities and accounting fraud, and related governance and corporate compliance issues. Chen also has extensive experience conducting compliance due diligence and designing compliance programs for clients in connection with private equity portfolio investments, M&A and IPO transactions. He also has experience in U.S.-based civil litigation involving Asia-based defendants. In addition, Chen frequently guides corporate and financial institutions clients through risk management issues associated with state secrecy, data privacy and cross-border data export control.His clients include major state-owned enterprises, multinational corporations and individuals from various industries including banking, pharmaceutical, technology, entertainment, insurance, consumer retail and hospitality, with a particular focus on China, Japan and Southeast Asia.Chen has been recognized as a Future Leader by Who’s Who Legal Investigations 2019 - 2022.Chen is a frequent presenter at legal conferences and client workshops relating to anti-corruption, economic sanctions and white-collar enforcement.Prior to joining Morrison Foerster, he worked in the Hong Kong and New York offices of a leading U.S. law firm. Chen is a native speaker of English and Mandarin. He is a Registered Foreign Lawyer with the Law Society of Hong Kong.

朱晨昊律师的执业重点为政府与内部调查、跨境执法事宜以及商业诉讼。他在针对美国经济制裁、反洗钱、美国《反海外腐败法》（FCPA）、证券和会计欺诈以及相关政府和公司合规问题提供法律意见方面拥有丰富的经验。朱律师在针对私募股权资产组合投资、并购和IPO交易为客户开展合规尽职调查以及设计合规计划方面拥有丰富的经验。他在处理涉及亚洲被告的美国民事诉讼事宜方面也具备经验。此外，朱律师亦经常协助公司和金融机构客户处理与国家机密、数据隐私和跨境数据出口管制有关的风险管理问题。朱律师的客户包括银行、医药、技术、娱乐、保险、消费品零售以及酒店业等多个行业的大型国有企业、跨国公司以及个人，其业务重点是中国、日本和东南亚地区。2019年 - 2020年《法律名人录》和2019年 - 2020年《全球调查评论》均将朱律师评为“公司调查领域的未来领袖律师”。朱律师是美富（国际）律师事务所的合伙人。在加入美富之前，朱律师在一家顶级美国律所的香港和纽约办事处任职。朱律师的母语是英文和中文。他是香港律师会的注册外国律师。

B. Chen Zhu