Morrison Foerster Welcomes Back Corporate Partner Stephen DeCosse in Tokyo

(October 17, 2023) – Morrison Foerster is pleased to announce the arrival of Stephen DeCosse as a partner in the firm’s Corporate Group based in Tokyo. Mr. DeCosse brings more than two decades of experience advising both private equity firms and corporates on their most strategic inbound and outbound M&A and joint venture transactions.

Mr. DeCosse joins Morrison Foerster from another global law firm. Prior to that, he was a corporate partner from 2001 to 2006 in Morrison Foerster’s Tokyo office. His practice focuses on M&A transactions and joint ventures across a broad range of industries, including technology, food and agriculture, energy, and transportation. He has extensive experience advising both Japanese corporates on outbound matters and international private equity firms on inbound matters.

“We are thrilled to welcome Steve back to the firm,” said Ken Siegel, Managing Partner of Morrison Foerster’s Tokyo office and head of the office’s 50 lawyer M&A team. “Steve is an excellent strategic fit for the firm, and our practice here in Tokyo. In addition to being a highly skilled corporate lawyer, he will play a key role in further diversifying and extending our outbound M&A practice and growing our inbound work for the increasingly active group of global PE firms in Tokyo.”

Mr. DeCosse’s addition further strengthens Morrison Foerster’s leading M&A team in Tokyo, the largest and most active M&A team of any international firm in Japan. MoFo continues to handle many of the market’s highest-profile and most complex M&A transactions, and the firm is the only international law firm ranked Band/Tier 1 for M&A in Japan by Chambers Global, Chambers Asia-Pacific, and The Legal 500 Asia Pacific.

“I am very excited to rejoin Morrison Foerster’s partnership,” said Mr. DeCosse. “Having previously worked in the firm’s corporate practice, I can attest to MoFo’s exceptional transactional capabilities and the high caliber of its M&A and private equity lawyers in Japan, as well as the scope and breadth of the firm’s global platform. I look forward to working alongside my colleagues, both new and old, to help advise our clients on their most important inbound and outbound M&A transactions and JVs.”

Mr. DeCosse is recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers Global, Chambers Asia-Pacific, and The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, in the Japan edition of Best Lawyers for Corporate and M&A (2020–2023), and as a Thomson Reuters Stand-out Lawyer (2021, 2022, and 2023). DeCosse earned his B.A from Princeton University and his J.D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he served as senior articles editor for the International Law Journal. He is admitted to the bar in California and is a Registered Foreign Lawyer in Japan.