Who We Are
More than 2,800 lawyers who work in 150+ countries and speak over 70 languages. Freshfields combines the entrepreneurial and collaborative environment of a boutique firm with the top clients, scale, mandates, resources, benefits and training of one of the oldest and largest international firms in the world.
With top-tier lawyers in the U.S. in M&A, corporate governance, securities and shareholder litigation, antitrust, white-collar defense and investigations, restructuring, technology and CFIUS, we offer clients the ability to work with the world’s first “jurisdictionally agnostic” firm, capable of delivering elite legal advice in every major practice area and in every corner of the world. We help clients navigate their most complex business issues and capitalize on their most significant opportunities. This work involves executing complex cross-border transactions, dealing with the most challenging multijurisdictional litigations and global investigations, and handling arbitrations and regulatory issues involving multiple countries.
We recently added renowned M&A, governance, litigation and technology partners with a depth of experience in the U.S. market, broadening and deepening our capabilities in the U.S. and contributing to the firm’s continued growth. We now have more than 80 partners and counsels and approximately 300 attorneys in New York, Washington, DC and Silicon Valley, and more than 380 U.S.-qualified practitioners globally. Our U.S. lawyers work seamlessly with their colleagues in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and their StrongerTogether peers located across all continents. Having been involved in $1.5 trillion of cross-border deals in the last five years, and having won judgments and arbitral awards worth billions of dollars in high-profile, high-stakes cross-border disputes, it’s no wonder we are the only firm ranked by Chambers Global in Band 1 across the seven areas of corporate/M&A, antitrust, dispute resolution, international arbitration, tax, employee benefits, and public international law.
Learn more about Freshfields new NY partner hire, Damien Zoubek.
Learn more about Freshfields SV partner hire, Joseph Halloum.
Learn more about Freshfields DC partner hire, Meghan Rissmiller.
Find opportunities at Freshfields on our website.
Our Clients
Big or small, commercial or institutional, what our clients all have in common is the sheer ambition and complexity of what they want to achieve. Put simply, they hire Freshfields when it matters most. We combine the knowledge, experience and energy of the entire firm to solve the biggest and most complex challenges, wherever and whenever they arise. Whether it’s entering new markets, executing strategic transactions or managing multijurisdictional regulation, we are renowned for breaking new legal ground to help our clients go further.
We advise the world’s leading national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and investors, as well as governments and their agencies both in the US and overseas, including:
- Advent International
- Alibaba
- Aon
- BC Partners
- Cognizant Technology
- CVC Capital
- Engie
- Expedia
- General Dynamics
- Honeywell
- Hewlett-Packard Enterprises
- Instacart
- KKR
- Lenovo
- London Stock Exchange
- PepsiCo
- Plenty
- Stanley Black & Decker
- Starbucks
- United Airlines
- UPS
- Visa
- Volkswagen
- Warburg Pincus
- Zymergen
Please click the link for a list of recent representative matters.
Diversity & Inclusion
We are a people business. Diversity is one of our core values and a strength for the firm. We value the fresh perspectives, creative ideas and connections that flow from bringing together people with different backgrounds. We strive each day to be a better and more diverse, supportive and inclusive workplace where everyone, regardless of their gender, race or ethnicity, background, religion, disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other dimensions of difference, has the opportunity to achieve their potential.
We also look beyond our firm through our involvement with external organizations and our collaborations with clients. We see ourselves as having a duty to create sustainable change in our profession, the business world and our wider communities. We are making progress but there is more to do. We have a clear set of priorities that include a focus on everyday actions and inclusive leadership, maximizing our diverse talent pipeline, and changing the dialogue and increasing engagement. These priorities ensure we are focused on building a more diverse workplace and greater inclusion for all.
Pro Bono
Freshfields is strongly committed to pro bono legal work and view it as an invaluable opportunity to give back to our communities, both global and local, in a way that leverages our unique professional skills as lawyers to help people in need. Our pro bono work is performed on the same professional basis, and to the same high professional standards, as our work for fee-paying clients. Our pro bono work centers on the themes, Access to Justice and Access to Opportunity. In our last fiscal year, 81% of our U.S. lawyers worked on a pro bono matter, averaging 110 hours per attorney.
Our recent pro bono work includes:
- Participation in the City Bar Justice Center’s Covid-19 Remote Small Business Clinic where volunteer lawyers provided legal advice to small business owners about their options under CARES and other federal relief programs.
- An international treaty project where Freshfields is working with the American Bar Association, international law experts, and international organizations to adopt a treaty that would outlaw the practices that have given rise to Covid-19 (and Ebola/SARS).
- Representation of a labor trafficking victim who was trafficked from the Dominican Republic to work for a couple in New York City as a nanny for their four children. The couple confiscated her passport and she was forced to work 19-hour, six-day work weeks for a hundred dollars a week.
- A Freshfields litigation team, in partnership with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Afghans and Iraqis who have faced mortal danger for helping U.S. forces and experienced several years of delay in the processing of their applications for Special Immigrant Visas (SIV).