Freshfields has hired a senior private capital M&A partner from US rival Latham & Watkins to launch an office in Boston, as the firm continues its push into the US market.
The new office will be the Magic Circle UK firm’s fourth in the US and focus on work for private capital, life sciences and emerging companies.
Matthew Goulding, who has spent the past four years at Latham, has joined as managing partner of the new office and is expected to lead its build out.
Freshfields’ senior partner, Georgia Dawson, said the firm expected Boston to play an important role in its US recruitment strategy “given its proximity to some of the best colleges and universities in the world and the city’s deep talent market for attorneys and business services colleagues”.
Boston has proved a magnet for Big Law in recent years as the city cemented its position as a tech and life sciences hub and its financial services market expanded. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Blank Rome, Covington & Burling, Arnold & Porter, Paul Hastings and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld have all opened offices in the city over the past two years.
For his part, Goulding advises financial sponsors and strategics on leveraged buyouts, M&A, carve-outs, take-privates, joint ventures, shareholder arrangements, equity investments and syndication transactions. He joined Latham in 2020 after 15 years at Weil and has worked with clients including The Sterling Group, HIG Capital and Thomas H Lee Partners on deals.
Freshfields has been regularly adding to its US ranks in recent months, hiring partners from Paul Hastings, Goodwin Procter and Cooley as well as recruiting senior lawyers from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Department of Justice leaving government following the change of administrations.
The firm has grown to nearly 500 lawyers across its US offices in New York, Washington DC and Silicon Valley, out of around 2,800 lawyers globally.
Last year it also hit Latham in New York for private equity dealmakers Neal Reenan and Ian Bushner, who joined as global co-head of private capital and head of US private capital, respectively. The duo had helped to launch Kirkland & Ellis’s Boston office in 2017 before joining Latham in 2020.
Freshfields’ Boston launch comes off the back of a strong performance in 2024, when it grew global revenue more than 18% to £2.1bn. US revenue grew by 26% to just over £391m, making it the fastest-growing of the firm’s four stated geographical markets.
Goulding’s departure from Latham comes on the same day that Paul Hastings announced the hire of former Boston-based colleague Sarah Gagan to co-head its new global tech transactions practice.
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