It was announced earlier this week that the law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP, based in San Francisco, has named Larren Nashelsky as its chairman. Nashelsky is a bankruptcy partner within the 1,100-lawyer firm. He was the co-chair of the firm’s bankruptcy practice prior to being named the chairman of the firm. Nashelsky is replacing Keith Wetmore, who is staying with the firm as its chair emeritus. Wetmore served as the firm’s chairman for 12 years. The firm has 14 offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. There are 400 lawyers working in the Bay Area for the firm.
The San Francisco Business Times spoke to Nashelsky about his new position with the firm recently. Some of the interview is below:
Q: How is the firm doing?
A: The firm is incredibly well positioned. We have had some of our best years in recent years.
Q: Five years from now, where do you see the firm?
A: We need to continue to build on what we’ve done. We need to be an even more valued, trusted advisor to our clients. Strengthen our relationship to our clients. We need to do that in key financial and technology centers.
Q: What do you think of the firm’s geographic reach?
A: It’s really good. We’re in all the places we need to be today. We need to see in southeast Asia how Singapore is coming as a hub there. We’ll take a close look at Singapore. We are in all the places we need to be. Domestically we’re in the key technology centers and financial centers.
Q: What is your sense of how the economy is shaping up?
A: The only thing we’re hearing is uncertainty. It’s anybody’s guess. We like our client base and the diversity of our client base. We’d be more worried if we had a single type of client base.