
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

About
Senior Partner: Georgia Dawson
Managing Partners: Alan Mason, Rick van Aerssen and Rafique Bachour.
Number of partners: circa 400
Number of lawyers: 2,800 plus
Languages: Members of the firm speak over 70 languages
Firm Overview:
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Freshfields) is a global law firm with a long-standing track record of successfully supporting the world’s leading national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments on groundbreaking and business-critical mandates. Freshfields’ 2,800-plus lawyers deliver results worldwide through its own offices and alongside leading local firms. Freshfields’ commitment, local and multi-national expertise and business know-how means Freshfields’ clients rely on the firm when it matters most.
Main Areas of Practice: Antitrust, Competition & Trade:
Freshfields’ competition practice offers unrivalled expertise in international, EU and national competition law matters. It advises financial institutions, governments and other clients worldwide through complex remedy negotiations across all sectors on all competition issues, including:
■ Merger control
■ Abuse of dominance
■ Cartel investigations
■ Follow-on and other antitrust litigation
■ Compliance
■ State aid
■ Public procurement
Contact: Thomas Janssens
Corporate:
In the past few years, Freshfields has advised on more cross-border M&A deals than any other law firm in the world. It has also consistently topped the European, Asia-Pacific and UK league tables.
Recent highlights include advising:
- AstraZeneca PLC on its $39bn acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.
- Cazoo on its £7bn business combination with SPAC AJAX and subsequent listing on the NYSE
- Aon on the sale of Willis Towers Watson assets to Gallagher for approx. $3.57bn
- Comcast Corporation on its £30.6 billion cash offer to acquire the entire share capital of Sky plc
Contact: Julian Pritchard
Disputes Resolution:
Freshfields has helped clients manage some of the most high-profile and business critical disputes, multi-jurisdictional investigations, competition claims, patent litigation and politically sensitive arbitrations in recent history. Freshfields is the market leader for arbitration, competition, intellectual property, investigations, regulation and complex commercial litigation. The firm has been particularly active in the technology, financial services, energy and consumer sectors.
Contact: Andrew Hart
People & Reward:
Freshfields work on all aspects of labour and employment law and advise global employers on everything from major projects (e.g. M&A transactions, cross border business restructuring), compliance and policies, whistleblowing and workplace investigations as well as hiring and firing. The team is equally expert in remuneration and reward matters and the design and implementation of bespoke incentive plans. It has significant experience advising on the most complex pensions projects, including liability management, funding and covenant support and scheme consolidations.
Contact: Boris Dzida
Finance:
The firm has finance lawyers worldwide, covering restructuring and insolvency, banking, structured finance, derivatives and capital markets, asset finance and project finance.
Freshfields has recently advised:
■ Malaysia Airlines on its global restructuring, which included the pioneering use of a U.K. scheme of arrangement for its aircraft leases
■ Retailers House of Fraser, Debenhams and Arcadia on their respective financial restructurings
■ CVC and Messer Group on the acquisition financing for the $3.3bn purchase of gas businesses in North and South America from Linde
■ The lenders on the €12bn project financing of Gazprom’s gas processing plant in Amur, eastern Russia
Real Estate:
Freshfields’ real estate practice advises on investment transactions, development projects, coinvestment structures, such as joint ventures, and all aspects of corporate real estate. The firm works for some of the largest, most high-profile organisations in the sector: private equity, sovereign wealth and pension funds, real estate investment trusts, and property developers and financiers.
Contact: Johannes Conradi
Regulatory:
Freshfields are market leaders in proactively identifying risk arising from legislative changes, helping multinational businesses to minimise it and working closely with regulatory authorities in multiple jurisdictions. The firm’s regulatory lawyers are spread across several practice groups, including antitrust, competition and trade, data and IP, people and reward, tax and financial regulatory, with vast experience of working on strategic advisory, transactional, investigative and enforcement issues, including:
■ State aid
■ Cartel investigations
■ Merger control
■ Pricing and sales strategies
■ Data protection and security
■ Workplace investigations
Contact: Michael Raffan
Tax:
Freshfields’ tax practice advises clients across all sectors on their most exacting deals, tax investigations and disputes, and consultancy tax matters, worldwide. The tax practice has recently advised:
- Advised AB InBev on the tax aspects of its acquisition of SABMiller, including the divestiture of SABMiller’s central and eastern European business, and the disposal of the Peroni, Grolsch and Meantime brands.
- RELX Group on the simplification of its UK/Netherlands dual-listed company structure into a single parent company listed in London, Amsterdam and New York via a cross-border merger of RELX NV into RELX PLC
Contact: David Haworth
Ranked Offices
Provided by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- London100 Bishopsgate, London, Greater London, UK, EC2P 2SR
- Web: www.freshfields.com
- Tel: +44 20 7936 4000
- Fax: (020) 7832 7001
- View ranked office
- ManamaBahrain World Trade Centre, 37st Floor, East Tower, PO Box 20184, Manama, Bahrain, BahrainView ranked office
- BrusselsBastion Tower, Place du Champ de Mars/Marsveldplein 5, Brussels, Brussels Capital Region, Belgium, B-1050View ranked office
- Beijing3705 China World Tower Two, 1 Jianguomenwai Avenue, Beijing, Beijing, China, 100004View ranked office
- Frankfurt am MainBockenheimer Anlage 44, Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Germany, 60322View ranked office
- TokyoAkasaka Biz Tower 36F, 5-3-1 Akasaka Minato-ku, Tokyo, Tokyo-to, Japan, 107-6336View ranked office
- Singapore10 Collyer Quay 42-01, Ocean Financial Centre, Singapore, Singapore Island, Singapore, 049315View ranked office
- Abu DhabiThe Makeen Building, Office 202, PO Box 129817, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesView ranked officeDubaiICD Brookfield Place, Level 13, DIFC , Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 506 569View ranked office
- Washington, DC700 13th Street NW, 10th Floor, Washington, DC, District of Columbia, USA, 20005-3960View ranked office
- HanoiSuite 1602 16th Floor Hanoi Central Office, Building, 44B Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, Ha Noi, VietnamView ranked officeHo Chi Minh City1101-1103, Saigon Tower, 29 Le Duan Boulevard, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, VietnamView ranked office
Contributions
9 Contributions provided by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Governments and companies around the world (including Belgium) are facing a significant increase in...
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | Germany
In Germany, companies face a variety of white-collar and regulatory enforcement challenges. There h...
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | Germany
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | Germany
So far in 2023, M&A markets have been disrupted in many jurisdictions. This is a consequence of...
Aviation Finance & Leasing 2023
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | Germany
Aviation Finance & Leasing 2023
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | Austria
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | USA
Governments and companies around the world (including Belgium) are facing a significant increase in...
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | Germany
In Germany, companies face a variety of white-collar and regulatory enforcement challenges. There h...
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | Germany
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | Germany
So far in 2023, M&A markets have been disrupted in many jurisdictions. This is a consequence of...
Aviation Finance & Leasing 2023
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | Germany
Aviation Finance & Leasing 2023
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | Austria
The general counsel's comprehensive guide | USA
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer rankings









