When will the US become a land of opportunity for Freshfields?

Tom Moore looks at Freshfields’ recent expansion in Manhattan

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has made growing its US practice its number one priority and the firm has even stepped on a few Wall Street toes in 2014 with its aggressive hiring strategy. In the space of a month, six new partners have been drafted in, including Shearman & Sterling M&A veteran Peter Lyons and former Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz dealmaker Mitchell Presser to boost an underweight transactional group. Despite success in US disputes and investigations work, Freshfields has lacked a real M&A engine in New York but has pinned its hopes on the duo putting a change to that.