OpenAI hires Morrison & Foerster and Latham & Watkins to handle litigation

OpenAI has retained Morrison & Foerster and Latham & Watkins to handle litigation, major transactions and regulatory matters, according to a May 22 report by JD Journal. The move adds two of the largest U.S. law firms to a legal roster already visible in court dockets tied to copyright and other disputes involving the ChatGPT maker. (jdjournal.com) The hires come as OpenAI is building out its in-house legal operation. (openai.com) OpenAI career postings reviewed this week show the company is recruiting for litigation, regulatory and compliance roles, including a senior paralegal for its “Litigation and Regulatory” team, a senior legal program manager focused on hardware compliance, and a senior counsel role covering sanctions and trade compliance. (law.com) That combination — outside counsel from elite firms and a larger internal legal bench — reflects the volume of matters now surrounding leading AI companies, from copyright suits to product compliance and government requests for user data. OpenAI has also published public guidance for civil requests for user data and a separate page outlining its position in the New York Times lawsuit. (jdjournal.com) ### Where do Morrison & Foerster and Latham already show up for OpenAI? Law.com court records show lawyers from Morrison & Foerster and Latham & Watkins entered appearances for OpenAI in The New York Times Company v. Microsoft Corporation et al., the copyright case filed in federal court in Manhattan in December 2023. (openai.com) A separate Law.com Radar entry from December 2023 also identified both firms as counsel for OpenAI in a suit brought by bestselling authors that later added Microsoft as a defendant. Those appearances matter because they show the relationship is not only advisory. The firms have already been involved in active litigation tied to training data, copyright and platform liability — the areas that have produced some of the highest-profile legal fights over generative AI. (openai.com) ### Why would OpenAI need outside firms as well as a bigger in-house team? OpenAI’s own job descriptions point to the answer. The senior paralegal posting says the role will support “litigation, dispute resolution, and certain regulatory matters,” while the hardware compliance role says the work will cover “AI governance, risk management, transparency, as well as privacy and model compliance.” The sanctions role says the legal team includes specialists across privacy, IP, corporate, cybersecurity, tax, regulatory and litigation work. (law.com) Large outside firms typically handle courtroom work, investigations, financing and transaction structuring that can require deep benches across multiple offices. (law.com) In OpenAI’s case, the public record already shows simultaneous pressure from private plaintiffs, media companies, business counterparties and regulators. ### Which legal fights are driving this buildup? The New York Times lawsuit remains one of the clearest examples. OpenAI has created a public page devoted to the case, where it argues that the newspaper’s claims have narrowed and says it is contesting demands for user-chat data. (openai.com) Bloomberg reported on May 18 that a jury rejected Elon Musk’s claims against Sam Altman and OpenAI over the company’s shift toward a for-profit structure, ending another closely watched case in Oakland, California. JD Journal has also reported on other suits against OpenAI, including claims tied to legal advice and product liability theories. (jdjournal.com) ### Is this only about lawsuits? JD Journal said the firms were retained not only for litigation but also for deals and regulatory matters. That broader scope fits with OpenAI’s published compliance hiring and its public-facing legal processes for civil subpoenas and data requests, which suggest the company is preparing for a wider set of obligations than courtroom defense alone. (openai.com) Law.com’s firm profiles underscore the scale of the advisers OpenAI is using. Morrison & Foerster reported more than $1.54 billion in 2025 gross revenue and more than 1,000 attorneys in the United States, according to Law.com’s rankings data. (bloomberg.com) ### What should readers watch next? Future court filings will show whether Morrison & Foerster and Latham & Watkins expand their appearances into new copyright, commercial or regulatory disputes involving OpenAI. OpenAI’s own careers page will also show whether the company continues adding litigation, compliance and trade lawyers in San Francisco and other offices. (openai.com) (law.com) (jdjournal.com)