Magic Circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has bolstered its US offering again, this time enhancing its employment capability with the hire of Kirkland & Ellis partner Howard Klein in New York.
Klein will join the firm’s employment, pensions and benefits (EPB) practice group in the US with a view to serving both US based and international clients. He had been a partner at Kirkland & Ellis since 2008, having previously been at Proskauer Rose which he joined in 2006 from Dewey Ballantine.
Commenting on his appointment, Caroline Stroud, Freshfields’ global practice group leader for EPB, said: ‘Executive compensation and employee benefits are important factors in most complex transactions in the US and globally. Howard’s extensive expertise in both advisory and transactional benefits work will be a key element to further strengthen our world-class transactional capability.’
Adam Siegel, US regional managing partner added: ‘Thanks to Howard, we are now well-positioned to cover regular reporting, governance, compensation and other related boardroom matters as an integral part of our compelling cross-border transactional practice.’
Klein’s move is further evidence of the firm’s push to make ground in the city and build a strong US presence. In September the firm hired a trio of partners – senior partner Valerie Ford Jacob, and corporate partners Michael Lewitt and Paul Tropp – from Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson’s New York office.
In the same month Shearman & Sterling’s Peter Lyons joined the firm as co-head of global public M&A while former Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz partner Mitchell Presser was brought in as US M&A head and former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partner, James Douglas, was became the firm’s Stateside leveraged finance chief.
kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk
