Freshfields Leader Plots New Cities as US Powers Firm’s Growth

Freshfields is considering expanding into Texas and Boston as the UK-founded law firm looks to continue its stateside revenue surge, according to senior partner Georgia Dawson.

“There’s quite a lot of market interest within particular practice areas around Texas and Boston,” Dawson said in an interview. “So we’ll just keep watching and evaluating, and then determine whether it’s a good time to do anything.”

The US has been Freshfields’ biggest growth engine in recent years after it set off on an aggressive stateside hiring strategy. Its investments in Silicon Valley, where Freshfields launched an office in 2020, have paid off by building the firm’s roster of tech clients, like Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Palantir, HP, and Instacart.

Georgia Dawson, Freshfields senior partner

The firm has lured partners from top firms on both coasts. It’s hired from New York’s Cravath Swaine & Moore and Cleary Gottlieb, and launched its Silicon Valley office with partners from Davis Polk & Wardwell, Sidley Austin, Latham & Watkins, and Wilson Sonsini.

Freshfields currently has more than 90 partners in the US and around 500 lawyers, with headcount doubling over the past five years.

The firm’s US business grew by £137 million ($178 million) in revenue from 2021 to 2023, accounting for about 87% of the firm’s overall growth during that time, according to records filed with a UK government regulator. Still, the US business, which generated £311 million in 2023, accounted for less than 20% of the firm’s reported £1.8 billion top line.

That figure would place Freshfields around the Top 15 US-headquartered firms by revenue. Its strategy has long been linked to providing round-the-globe service for major clients.

If the US business can replicate the 79% revenue growth it achieved from fiscal 2021 to 2023, the stateside lawyers would generate around £550 million in revenue by fiscal 2025, or around $715 million by current exchange rates.

Dawson said she’s not focused on hitting revenue metrics.

“What is gratifying to see is that it’s coming together nicely,” Dawson said, referring to US growth. “The market recognition, moving up the league tables, and then the financial output as well is all heading in the right direction.”

She added that the firm remains focused on growing in Europe, saying there is “a very clear and frank dialogue” within the partnership that the US growth must be accompanied by European investment. The firm in April announced its latest London hire, capital markets partner David Boles, who joined from Cooley.

Freshfields ranked No. 5 among Big Law firms on global M&A deals through three quarters this year, advising on 156 deals worth $197 billion.

Its US expansion comes as other London “Magic Circle” firms have pursued their own avenues to growth. Clifford Chance has similarly turned to the lateral market, looking to recruit 12 to 19 partners annually over the next three years, its leaders told Bloomberg Law in August. Allen & Overy’s merger with Shearman & Sterling gave the combined firm a hefty US presence.

Freshfields’ Silicon Valley office, which now counts around 70 lawyers, has driven much of the firm’s US growth. The firm has about 100 lawyers in Washington and 330 lawyers in New York. The client base and revenue flowing from the Northern California office are a “significant proportion” of global firm revenue, Dawson said.

Big Tech Synergy

The firm’s reputation for antitrust work has paired well with its push into the tech industry as US regulators take aim at companies like Google.

Freshfields is currently part of the team representing Google in a major antitrust trial over its advertising technology, with closing arguments next month. The company already lost a separate case brought by the Department of Justice alleging it was a monopolist in Internet search.

Partner Eric Mahr, the former director of litigation at the DOJ’s antitrust division who joined Freshfields in 2018, is leading the firm’s work for Google in that case. Freshfields last month hired former Google in-house lawyer Kevin Yingling to its antitrust practice.

The firm also hired in February Christine Wilson, who resigned from the Federal Trade Commission in protest over what she called chair Lina Khan’s “disregard for the rule of law.” Wilson is now head of US antitrust, competition and trade.

“We maybe didn’t have the scale for some of these significant projects in the US until more recently,” Dawson said, referring to antitrust work. “The lateral hiring and internal promotions have been transformational to adding to the bench but also adding to the market recognition. And then I would combine those two things with opening in Silicon Valley, which, not just for antitrust but for the firm globally, has been transformational.”

Freshfields has more recently been focused on bulking up its asset management practice, luring private equity and private capital lawyers from major rivals.

The firm also “refreshed” its brand last month, dropping a logo that featured an angel for streamlined lettering and shortening the firm’s official name to simply “Freshfields.”

The British Are Coming

This month, Freshfields hired Claire James from Willkie Farr & Gallagher to serve as head of its New York private equity practice. That followed the hires in March of former Latham & Watkins partners Neal Reenan and Ian Bushner, who now serve as global co-head of private capital and head of US private capital, respectively.

The latter hire may have hinted at Freshfields’ ambitions in Boston. While Reenan and Bushner are listed as New York lawyers at Freshfields, the pair have deep roots in Bean Town, where they previously launched Kirkland & Ellis’ office in 2017.

The firm is still evaluating whether it needs to add a fourth US office.

“If it became apparent that we needed to either shape shift or open somewhere in order to meet client needs, we would look to do that,” Dawson said.