The chair of Morrison & Foerster’s technology practice in Tokyo, Matthew Berger, has moved to Paul Hastings. He will be based in Paul Hastings’ Palo Alto and Tokyo offices advising on IP and technology related matters.
Berger – who has represented US, Japanese and European clients such as Toshiba and Fujitsu in the life sciences and technology industries – said that his move to Paul Hastings was prompted by the firm’s bigger network as more Japanese clients invest across Europe, the Middle East and the US. “I found myself working on deals all over the Pacific Rim and increasingly in Europe. My practice was based in Tokyo but becoming more and more international so this is a really good fit,” he said.
Japanese companies in the clean technology sectors are forging ahead despite the economic crisis by increasing their outbound investments. “Japan has a strong clean tech practice and now I think that whole sector is becoming very active, causing this spread of deals around the world,” said Berger. “Despite the deep recession right now, a lot of companies are doing deals differently – for example through joint ventures or strategic alliances – where traditionally they would do M&A, so there’s been an increase in the type of deal that I work on.”
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