UK top 10 firm Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has significantly boosted its global financial services offering with the arrival of a senior disputes partner duo from Hogan Lovells in New York. 

Marc Gottridge, Hogan Lovells’ global head of financial services litigation, and financial services and New York administrative partner Lisa Fried have joined HSF’s only US office and bring the UK firm’s headcount in the Big Apple to nearly 50 lawyers.

Gottridge, who has spent his entire career with Hogan Lovells, brings three decades of experience as a litigator to his new firm. He focuses his practice on large scale cross-border and complex litigation and regulatory enforcement for international clients in the financial services industry and has played a leading role in a number of internal investigations conducted by US agencies including the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.  

Fried, meanwhile, joined Hogan Lovells from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in 2005 as an associate and made partner in 2013. She represents leading financial institutions and global companies in complex commercial litigation, class actions and investigations, with particular expertise in handling conflicts between US and foreign laws for non-US banks in cross-border matters. 

The duo will be reunited with Hogan Lovells’ former global employment head Barbara Roth, who joined HSF's litigation bench in New York in 2019.

HSF’s New York managing partner and US investigations and financial services litigation head Scott Balber said: “We are pleased to welcome Marc and Lisa to the firm. They are established market leaders in financial services litigation with a wealth of experience in the space. Their addition will underline the strength of our practice in New York and adds to our already compelling offering.”

Launched in 2012, HSF’s New York team consists of 45 lawyers including 15 partners and specialises in financial services, energy and consumer products matters and has served as a hub for the firm’s Latin America practice since 2015. 

The firm has also been busy elsewhere, having hired a four-strong insurance team from DLA Piper in Düsseldorf in September and signed up Mayer Brown’s London head of insurance, Will Glassey, to help grow its law firm professional indemnity and regulatory practice in July. 

Oher UK-based firms to make partner-level hires in New York in recent months include Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy.