With Magic Circle firms still vowing to break ground in the US legal market, Manhattan-based corporate partner Matthew Jacobson has left Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and joined top-40 US firm King & Spalding while in the Netherlands, well-respected Robert ten Have has joined Rutgers & Posch.
Jacobson will work across King & Spalding’s New York and Silicon Valley offices to advise the firm’s clients and matters on the west coast.
Most recently, Jacobson was co-head of Freshfields’ technology sector group and a member of the firm’s India committee, with a particular focus on large, complex deals for public and private global companies.
Recent noteworthy deals include advising medical device manufacturer Invatec on the sale of its business to Medtronic for $500m; representing Chinese automaker Geely on its $1.8bn agreement with Ford to purchase Volvo; and advising CVC on its $4.4bn bid to purchase the ishares ETF business from Barclays Global Investors – although this was later terminated.
Jacobson joined the Magic Circle firm in May 2005, before which he was corporate counsel at Hewlett-Packard for five years, overseeing M&A activities, including the purchase and global restructuring of Compaq.
Jacobson is the fourth partner to join King & Spalding’s New York transactional practices in the past ten months, and joins debt finance partner Ellen Snare who joined from Kirkland & Ellis in March, and alternative investment specialist Drew Chapman who joined as a partner from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in May this year.
Jacobson said: ‘There is great momentum at King & Spalding. I look forward to working with all the partners, especially those in the California Silicon Valley office and in the healthcare/life sciences and energy groups.’
Freshfields has also lost the former head of its Amsterdam office, partner Robert ten Have, to Dutch boutique Rutgers & Posch. He will join on 1 September and continue to focus on capital market transactions, M&A and corporate governance.
His departure follows that of another major Dutch heavyweight, partner Richard Norbruis, to big four accountancy giant EY in June 2014.
Jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk