Lowenstein Snags Venture Funds Partner From Morrison Foerster

Lowenstein Sandler has hired a venture funds partner away from Morrison Foerster, Bloomberg Law News reports.

The move, disclosed on November 15, 2024, adds a private funds specialist to Lowenstein Sandler's partnership at a moment when venture capital dealmaking is under pressure and law firms are competing hard for lawyers who can service funds formation work.

The partner in question built a practice at Morrison Foerster centered on venture capital funds — the vehicles that institutional investors and family offices use to back startups. That skill set has become a battleground for lateral hiring across the legal industry. Firms with strong technology and life sciences client bases want fund-formation lawyers who can both form new vehicles and advise on the downstream portfolio investments those vehicles make.

Lowenstein Sandler, headquartered in New York, has invested heavily in its technology and venture practices in recent years. The firm represents companies, investors, and investment managers across the startup economy. Bringing in a funds partner from Morrison Foerster — a firm with one of the most established private funds benches in the country — signals the intensity of that push.

For Morrison Foerster, the departure is a lateral loss in a market where fund formation partners move rarely and command significant portable business. MoFo, as the firm is known, has long ranked among the go-to counsel for venture capital and growth equity fund sponsors, alongside firms such as Wilson Sonsini, Goodwin, Cooley, and Gunderson Dettmer.

Bloomberg Law News, which first reported the hire, framed it as a snag — a word that captures the competitive dynamic. Venture funds partners sit at the intersection of two revenue streams: the formation of limited partner vehicles, which generates recurring, recession-resistant fee income, and the deal work that flows from those vehicles' investments. When interest rates rise and fundraising tightens, as both have done since 2022, the fund formation lawyers who retain sponsor relationships become more valuable, not less.

The hire also reflects a broader pattern in the lateral market. Mid-sized firms with focused technology practices, Lowenstein Sandler among them, have aggressively recruited partners from the large national firms that historically dominated private funds work. The pitch is straightforward: a platform dedicated to the venture ecosystem, without the conflicts and leverage pressures of a global mega-firm.

Lowenstein Sandler has not disclosed the financial terms of the hire. Lateral partner moves at this level typically involve guarantees spanning multiple years, though the specifics remain private.

The new partner joins a private investment funds group that Lowenstein Sandler has assembled over the past several years. The group advises sponsors on fund formation, secondaries, and regulatory compliance, and represents companies raising capital from those sponsors.

What comes next will test the logic of the hire. Venture capital fundraising has fallen sharply from its 2021-2022 peak, and limited partners have grown selective about new commitments. If Lowenstein Sandler's new partner brings sponsor relationships that hold through the downturn, the firm will have secured a durable fee engine at a discount to boom-year prices. If fundraising stays depressed, the hire becomes a long-term bet on recovery.