When the firm kicked off a major restructuring in 2006, it probably didn’t anticipate that by cutting back in its niche finance areas it would also lose senior names from its core practice. Certainly, the departures of David Ereira and Brian Gray to Linklaters were not in the original plan.
The restructuring of its finance practice has taken Freshfields from five — albeit sizeable — ‘niche’ practices to two bigger ‘engine room’ practices, covering the firm’s structured and asset finance groups on one side, and, on the other, its banking and restructuring practices.
The split of partners between the two groups now sits at around 60:40 in favour of the structured and asset group, with around 40 partners in the
As such, Allen and Goetz’s arrival plugs an obvious hole in the magic circle firm’s acquisition finance practice. Coupled with the partner promotions of Tazim Hall and Alex Mitchell in the department, Freshfields has made (and will be seen to have made) a credible commitment to building a lender practice in
That back-to-basics approach was a key aim of co-head of finance Perry Noble, who has masterminded much of the reshaping of finance. No longer does Freshfields want to be seen as a collection of niches or to flirt with retail banking. Noble says Freshfields wants to be the “leveraged firm of choice” for key clients, implying an obvious cross-over with its muscular private equity and financial institutions business.
But while there is clear logic to whittling the practice down to what you do best, the issue the firm now faces is rolling this model out across its international network. Although it has been concentrating on ‘getting
Noble acknowledges that implementing the model outside the City is still a work in progress. As such, the firm has posted some of its most senior finance names, including former City finance chief Bob Charlton and veteran infrastructure and projects partner Charles July around its network.
Critics will also say the firm’s lack of debt securities presence will not help its current banking push. None of which will make much difference — cracking leveraged finance has never had that much to do with mass and given the M&A progress the firm managed in the equally impenetrable buy-out market over the last five years, Freshfields should shortly be giving rivals a few more surprises.
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