Renowned authority in securities law and corporate governance and former Chief Counsel of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance returns to firm as a partner

Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce that former partner David Lynn is rejoining the firm’s Corporate Department and Corporate Finance group; he will be based in the Washington, D.C. office. Mr. Lynn, a market leader in securities, corporate governance and public company counseling, previously served as the Chief Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance. At the SEC, Mr. Lynn led the SEC’s efforts to implement and interpret the rules adopted by the SEC following passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Mr. Lynn also led the SEC’s rulemaking team that drafted amendments to the SEC’s executive compensation and related party disclosure rules in 2006.

With his return to Morrison & Foerster, Mr. Lynn will serve as a co-chair of the firm’s global Corporate Finance group and will continue his market-leading public companies practice. Mr. Lynn will also continue as co-editor of TheCorporateCounsel.net and The Corporate Counsel, which are widely read sources on securities, governance and corporate law matters.

Mr. Lynn served as the Chief Counsel of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance from 2003 to 2007 and was a partner at Morrison & Foerster from 2008 to 2017.

“Our public company and corporate governance practices are set apart by their exceptional strength, depth and breadth; Dave is a highly-respected addition to that group,” said Jackie Liu, Chair of Morrison & Foerster’s global Corporate Department. “His return to the firm as a co-chair of the Corporate Finance group reunites Dave’s industry-leading expertise with our market-leading practice.”

“I am excited to rejoin my talented colleagues in Morrison & Foerster’s corporate department,” said Mr. Lynn. “Morrison & Foerster is a great home for my practice, particularly because of its well respected public company practice, its outstanding collaborative culture and exceptional lawyers.”

Morrison & Foerster corporate lawyers are recognized as leaders of a sophisticated, market-leading public companies practice advising public companies, their boards and management teams on complex and critical matters. The firm serves as primary outside counsel to dozens of public companies, many of them among the Fortune 500. Our practices and lawyers are ranked in the industry’s leading directories, including Chambers Global, Chambers USA and Legal 500. Morrison & Foerster’s corporate department also continues to be named on “America’s Best Corporate Law Firms” list by Corporate Board Member/FTI Consulting.

In addition to being a leading authority on public company issues generally, Mr. Lynn is particularly well known in the area of executive compensation disclosure, having co-authored “The Executive Compensation Disclosure Treatise and Reporting Guide.” Mr. Lynn also serves as chair of the American Bar Association Business Law Section’s Federal Regulation of Securities Committee, co-chair of the Practising Law Institute’s Annual Institute on Securities Regulation and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society. Mr. Lynn received his law degree from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where he serves as a member of the Board of Visitors, and his undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics and finance from Loyola University Maryland.