As news broke late on Friday (19 September) that Fried Frank senior partner Valerie Ford Jacob, was heading to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s New York office, any remaining doubts about the magic circle firm’s determination to build a meaningful transactions practice in the US should have been erased.
Arguably the star turn in Freshfields’ recent US campaign, Jacob’s recruitment – as part of a three partner capital markets team from Fried Frank – follows hot on the heels of three other major hires. Two weeks ago, the firm signed Mitchell Presser (ex-Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz) and James Douglas (ex-Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom) to fill the newly created management positions of US M&A head and leveraged finance head respectively. Just one week later former Shearman & Sterling partner Peter Lyons arrived to serve as co-head of the firm’s global public M&A group.
