Morrison Foerster adds finance and private equity partner

Law firm Morrison Foerster has added Michael Vernace as a partner in its finance and private equity groups.

Vernace joins from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett where he was a partner in the banking and credit department. He is based in the firm’s San Francisco office. He is the second partner to join the finance practice this year and is the seventh partner to join the private equity practice within the past three years.

Vernace advises private equity funds and their portfolio companies in complex US and cross-border financings, including acquisition financings and refinancings, along with other public and private companies in varying stages of their lifecycle. He also focuses on supporting sponsor-borrowers along with additional lender-side representations and borrower-side bankruptcy remote financings, and advises clients through syndicated finance and other commercial lending transactions, including acquisition, leveraged, investment-grade, asset-based, corporate, receivables, net asset value and hybrid financings.

The law firm said in a press release that Vernace’s hire emphasizes the continued growth of the firm’s global finance and private equity practices, which includes the arrivals of private equity partners Mitchell Presser, Omar Pringle and Aly El Hamamsy in New York; Rongjing Zhao in Beijing; Tabitha Saw and Steven Tran in Singapore; Steve DeCosse in Tokyo; Jennifer Seipelt in Berlin; and James Beach in San Francisco in recent years, in addition to the arrivals of Tammy Davies and Vernace this year.