What are we to make of the most aggressive raid between top ten City firms since Allen & Overy helped itself to the bulk of Norton Rose’s leveraged finance team back in 2002? In some ways, news this month that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is to ship in a productive five-partner buyout group from Ashurst seems even more notable.
For Freshfields, which has shied away from lateral recruitment in its European heartlands, to make such a huge commitment is striking and speaks to the doubled-down bet the Magic Circle firm has made in private equity and related finance.
