Freshfields has boosted its M&A bench in New York with the hire of former Cravath partner Keith Hallam from White & Case.
Hallam joined White & Case in early 2024 after 17 years at Cravath Swaine & Moore. Last year he advised Deliveroo on its £2.9bn sale to DoorDash, and has acted for clients including private equity sponsors, corporates and investors on deals work covering public and private M&A, carve-outs, joint ventures, strategic investments, structured equity and cross-border transactions. He also brings experience in activism defense and shareholder-engagement matters.
Hallam overlapped at Cravath with Freshfields' US managing partner, Damien Zoubek, who said his hire would "accelerate the incredible momentum" of the firm's M&A practice.
“He is a world-class lawyer ... his deal sheet shows a broad skill set that aligns with the core of our firm's US M&A business,” Zoubek added.
At Freshfields, Hallam will work as part of a US practice that has grown to 115 partners according to the firm's website, nearly 50 of them part of its M&A practice. He continues an aggressive hiring streak by the firm in the US that has seen it build on core strengths in restructuring, tax, antitrust and regulatory as well as corporate and M&A.
Last year, Freshfields added private capital M&A partner Matthew Goulding from Latham & Watkins to open in Boston, adding to its longstanding bases in New York and Washington DC and the Silicon Valley office it opened in 2020.
The firm's US focus was underscored earlier this month when it emerged it had axed European equity partners as part of a drive to improve its US growth prospects.
That followed Freshfields overhauling its pay structure late last year to create a more flexible, performance-based system intended to help it better attract top talent – a move that reportedly led to dozens of its roughly 500 partners receiving fewer equity points – and introducing a non-equity partner tier earlier this year.
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