Morrison & Foerster has nabbed a senior structured finance lawyer from Nomura Securities in Tokyo, helping the US firm develop its asset backed financing practice.

Shinji Itoh joins MoFo's Japanese joint venture firm Ito & Mitomi as a partner in the corporate group. He is returning to private practice after three and half years at Nomura, where he was special counsel in the investment banking division advising on the structure and management of a wide range of transactions.

Itoh's appointment brings MoFo's Tokyo office headcount to 50 US and Japanese qualified lawyers, enabling it to go after more complex deals. The firm's client base in Japan's capital includes such multinationals as Softbank, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Sumitomo Corporation, Goldman Sachs and Toshiba.