Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is to become the first top
Under the restructuring of the firm’s practices and sector groups, its 120 projects lawyers will join up with other teams.
It is also understood the majority of its nine
Freshfields is consolidating its five finance sub-groups into two or three broader teams. Project finance will no longer exist as a sub-group, while asset finance and structured finance are expected to be combined. Some of the practice’s partners may be moved out of finance altogether.
Head of projects Nicholas Bliss has also become head of a new cross-practice sector grouping dubbed infrastructure, transport and logistics. He will lead the team alongside cor-porate partner Edward Braham.
The news marks the latest development in the magic circle firm’s partnership restructuring, which is expected to result in around 70 partners leaving the equity during this financial year.
Despite previous indications that the restructuring would impact on finance, the scale of the current shake-up — and the sharp shift in focus towards Freshfields’ market-leading M&A practice — has caused surprise.
However, the firm insists it will maintain a project finance capability. Joint senior partner Konstantin Mettenheimer said: “We have combined a few sector groups and are looking at some of the practice group sub-structures. We could see, for example, project finance forming part of a larger sub-group, although it will still remain as part of finance.”
He added: “We are undergoing a wide restructuring from Asia to
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Freshfields’ restructuring could also generate a number of claims against the firm, in addition to the age discrimination claim by former insolvency head Peter Bloxham.
Bloxham’s claim relates to the fact that his pension has been affected because he retired before he was 55. Legal Week understands a number of ex-partners are considering claims against the firm over the length of time they will have to wait before they receive their pension payments.
Partners aged 50 or over were given the option to take early retirement from the partnership by 31 July, 2006, to retain the benefits of the old pension scheme.
Under the old scheme, partners who join another firm are not allowed to start receiving payments until they retire.
The new pension scheme says that partners who join another firm have to wait for two years before receiving their pension, regardless of their age.
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