Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has made a big-name white collar hire in the US with the addition of Matthew Friedrich, the former acting head of the criminal division of the US Department of Justice (DoJ), from elite US litigation firm Boies Schiller and Flexner.

Friedrich will join the magic circle firm's Washington base from New York's Boies Schiller, where he has been a partner since 2009. Prior to that, he spent 13 years at the DoJ, where he served as acting assistant attorney general of the criminal division.

He is a former chair of the US National Procurement Fraud Task Force and served as a member of the US President's Corporate Fraud Task Force. Prior to his appointment as head of the criminal division, he was deputy chief of staff to US Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

At Freshfields, Friedrich's practice will focus on white-collar investigations and related litigation for public companies and financial institutions. His appointment brings the partner count of the firm's US litigation practice to 16.

Freshfields head of US litigation and global financial institutions litigation Aaron Marcu said: "Matt will be our sixth dedicated white collar partner in the US, and will work closely with Tim Coleman in our DC office and our white collar team in New York to ensure that we can handle the large and complicated investigations that significant corporate and financial institutions [are increasingly] confronting."

Freshfields US managing partner Julian Pritchard added: "Few lawyers achieve the level of success he has already seen in his career, in particular his extraordinary rise through one of the US Government's toughest agencies. He's also a superb team player, with an international outlook, all of which adds up to a perfect fit for us."

The news comes after the firm boosted its US litigation ranks last year with the hire of former Sullivan & Cromwell partner Michael Lacovara.

Lacovara, who joined the New York office, co-founded S&C's Palo Alto office in 2000 and represented Microsoft in the federal government's landmark antitrust case against the software giant.