Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton is set to close its Frankfurt office in November, bringing an end to its presence in Germany’s business capital after 34 years.

Cleary will fold its Frankfurt team into its other German office in Cologne in a move the firm said would improve collaboration, efficiency and bolster client service. 

“Germany remains an important component of Cleary’s strong and long-standing European platform,” the firm added in a statement. 

German legal news publisher Juve reported that a declining headcount in Frankfurt had been an “open secret” in the German market. 

There have been some senior departures in Frankfurt in recent years, including the retirement of M&A partner Michael Ulmer last year and corporate and capital markets partner Oliver Schröder’s move to leading German independent SZA in 2020. 

The exits have left Cleary with 14 lawyers in Frankfurt, two of them partners – M&A specialists Mirko von Bieberstein and Nico Abel, who joined in 2023, having been managing partner of Herbert Smith Freehills’ German offices.  

The firm’s website lists 26 lawyers for Cologne, with the office’s four partners practising across tax, EU and competition law, including competition litigation. 

Cleary’s Frankfurt closure goes against the grain of a trend for US law firms to grow their presence in Germany through lateral hires and office openings. 

Since the start of last year, Kirkland & Ellis has launched in Frankfurt, DLA Piper opened its fifth German office in Dusseldorf, and private equity and M&A work lured Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Greenberg Traurig to set up shop in Munich. 

Notable laterals have included Morgan Lewis’s hire of two IP partners from Reed Smith and a private equity partner from Milbank last July across Munich and Frankfurt, and Willkie’s hire of an 11-lawyer restructuring team from Latham & Watkins in Frankfurt. 

However, there have also been office closures. Last year, Eversheds Sutherland shut its Berlin office after a decade following a strategic review of its German business. The firm still has a sizeable presence in Germany, however, with around 170 lawyers across four offices and said at the time it remained a key market for the firm.