Morrison & Foerster has joined environmental groups to bring a suit that aims to block the federal government from selling Plum Island, which long housed an animal disease research lab off the coast of Long Island.

Working on a pro bono basis, MoFo filed a sweeping complaint late Thursday in New York federal court on behalf of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment’s Save the Sound program, among others. The MoFo team includes environmental partner Christopher Carr in San Francisco, New York-based securities partner Carl Loewenson Jr. and managing attorney Joshua Roy, also in New York.