Freshfields LLP (formerly Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, or FBD) is a British multinational

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise consumer, clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and Obligation, respon ...

headquartered in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, and a member of the so-called "

Magic Circle A magic circle is a circle of space marked out by practitioners of some branches of ritual magic, which they generally believe will contain energy and form a sacred space, or will provide them a form of magical protection, or both. It may be mar ...

". The firm has 28 offices in 17 jurisdictions across

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. It advises national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments.

History

Freshfields was created in 2000 when

U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

-based Freshfields merged with the two law firms,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

-based Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund and Germany-and-

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

-based Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Löber. Dubbed as the oldest firm within the Magic Circle, Freshfields' origins arguably go back to around 1716, when Thomas Woodford began to practise law. Woodford was succeeded in his practice in 1730 by William Wall, who was succeeded in turn in 1743 by Samuel Dodd.Slinn 1984, p. 177. That same year, Dodd was appointed attorney to the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

.Slinn, Judy (1993). ''Freshfields, 1743–1993'', London: Freshfields In 1788, Winter and Kaye began advising

Sir Richard Arkwright Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as ...

, inventor of the

water frame The water frame is a spinning frame that is powered by a water-wheel. History Richard Arkwright, who patented the technology in 1769, designed a model for the production of cotton thread, which was first used in 1765. The Arkwright water f ...

. When James William Freshfield joined in 1800, Dodd had died and the Freshfield family became the dominant force in the law firm. Dodd's appointment is treated by Freshfields as the firm's foundation date. The firm changed its name on numerous occasions as different partners joined or left. In 1800, James William Freshfield (1775–1864) was the first member of the Freshfield family to become a partner, and the firm became known as Winter, Kaye, Beckwith & Freshfield. Following further name changes, it became Freshfield & Son in 1825, and eventually Freshfields 1868–76, Freshfields & Williams 1876–98, Freshfields 1899–1918, Freshfields & Leese 1918–1921, Freshfields, Leese & Munns 1921–1945, and Freshfields 1946–2000. The last member of the Freshfield family to be a partner, another James William Freshfield, retired in 1927. Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Löber traces its origins back to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

in 1840. At the time of its 2000 merger with Freshfields, the firm was one of the two largest law firms in Germany. Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund was founded in 1962 by

Arved Deringer Arved Deringer (4 June 1913 – 25 October 2011) was a German lawyer and politician for the CDU. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1957 and 1969. In 1952, Deringer partnered with Alfred Gleiss in a law firm that is now Gleiss Lutz. He left ...

and Claus Tessin and was based in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

from 1970 to 2000. In 2019, the firm became the first non-US law firm to raise the salaries of newly qualified junior lawyers in the United Kingdom to £100,000, then £125,000 in 2022 and £150,000 in 2024. In September 2020, Freshfields announced Georgia Dawson as its new senior partner after time leading the firm's Asia operations. In October 2022, the firm announced the appointment of Jake Reynolds as its head of Client Sustainability and Environment to support energy transition, human rights, corporate governance, climate change and sustainable finance. In 2024, the firm announced that as part of their rebrand, the firm's legal name would be shortened to Freshfields, dropping "Bruckhaus Deringer".

Future expansion

Georgia Dawson, a Freshfields senior partner, indicated in 2024 that the firm is looking to expand its presence in the United States amid a surge in revenue. Dawson highlighted the state of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, as well as

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, as potential locations for expansion.

Emblem

The first James William Freshfield (1775–1864) adopted the crest of John Freshfield of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

as his own, having seen it as a boy. It was later used as the firm's mark. The emblem represents archangel

St Michael Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second- ...

, depicted with a spear. Since the most recent rebranding in 2024, the emblem has been repositioned away from the commercial side of the business and is now primarily associated with internal sports teams and similar purposes.

Controversies

In 2019, the firm faced questioning by the

Solicitors Regulation Authority The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is the regulatory body for solicitors in England and Wales. It is responsible for regulating the professional conduct of more than 125,000 solicitors and other authorised individuals at more than 11,00 ...

over its review into how

UBS UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major financial centres as the ...

dealt with a rape complaint. Since 2017, German prosecutors have twice raided Freshfields' Frankfurt offices to investigate the phantom-trading fraud, known as cum ex fraud, which the German government estimates cost its treasury more than 5 billion euros. Freshfields gave tax advice, which was used to justify its legality. In November 2019, the firm's former head of international tax, Ulf Johannemann, was arrested and charged with tax fraud. Then in June 2020, a second former partner was charged with aiding and abetting tax evasion in the scandal. In 2020, the firm was also discovered to have had historic ties to the Atlantic slave trade. In particular, the firm's name founder, James William Freshfield, financially benefited from slavery by acting as a trustee and owner-in-fee for several slave-owners.

Notable Freshfields attorneys

Bim Afolami Abimbola "Bim" Afolami (; born 11 February 1986) is a British Conservative Party politician. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hitchin and Harpenden in Hertfordshire from the 2017 general election until 2024. He was the Econom ...

* Dame Sarah Falk *

Douglas Freshfield Douglas William Freshfield (27 April 1845 – 9 February 1934) was a British lawyer, mountaineer and author, who edited the ''Alpine Journal ''from 1872 to 1880. He was president of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club. He was ...

Henry Ray Freshfield Henry Ray Freshfield (2 February 1814 – 8 February 1895) was an English lawyer and conservationist. Freshfield was the fourth and youngest son of James William Freshfield and his wife Mary Blacket and was born at Lothbury. His father was a la ...

Kenneth I. Juster Kenneth Ian Juster (born November 24, 1954) is an American former diplomat, who served as the United States Ambassador to India from 2017 to 2021. He is currently senior counselor at the global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, senior advi ...

John Lamont John Robert Lamont (born 15 April 1976) is a Scottish Conservative Party politician and solicitor who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk since 2017, and was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotlan ...

* Chris Mort * Mark Okerstrom * Jan Paulsson * John Parkinson *

Benito Romano Benito Romano (born 1950) was the first Puerto Rican to hold a United States Attorney's post in New York on an interim basis. Early life and education Romano's parents moved to New York City from Puerto Rico and settled down in the Bronx where ...

* Sir

Anthony Salz Sir Anthony Michael Vaughan Salz (born 30 June 1950) is a British solicitor. He sat on the Board of Governors of the BBC from 1 August 2004, after the resignation of the former Vice Chairman, Lord Ryder, and was Acting Chairman in 2006 following ...

* Terry Calvani * Timothy A. Wilkins * Sir Nicholas Young *

Alma Zadić Alma Zadić (; born 24 May 1984) is a Bosnian-born Austrian lawyer and politician of the Green Party. She served as Minister of Justice from 7 January 2020 until 3 March 2025 in the governments of Chancellors Sebastian Kurz, Alexander Schallenbe ...

References

External links

* {{Magic Circle 1743 establishments in England Law firms based in London Law firms established in 2000 Foreign law firms with offices in the United States Foreign law firms with offices in Hong Kong Foreign law firms with offices in Japan Foreign law firms with offices in the Netherlands British companies established in 1743 Multinational companies headquartered in the United Kingdom Law firms established in 1743 Multinational law firms