Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has significantly boosted its corporate ranks in Germany with the hire of a 10-lawyer team from US rival Orrick led by three partners. 

Oliver Duys, who spent more than a decade as Orrick’s Germany managing partner, has joined HSF’s corporate practice in Düsseldorf alongside partners Wilhelm Nolting-Hauff and Nikita Tkatchenko, two counsel, three associates and two foreign counsel. 

Mike Flockhart, HSF’s global co-head of corporate, said the team’s hire was testament to the firm’s “ongoing investment in our transactional practice and aligned to our private capital strategic priority”.

“Their collective experience gives our global corporate M&A practice a stronger foothold from which we will be able to unlock more cross-border opportunities,” he added. 

Duys, who had been a partner at Orrick since 2008, focuses on M&A and private equity and has extensive experience advising on complex cross-border transactions including real estate portfolio deals, the formation of joint ventures and the establishment of funds and restructurings. He particularly advises companies from the Middle East and India on international M&A projects. 

Meantime Nolting-Hauff, who has also been at Orrick since 2008, primarily advises on company acquisitions and sales, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures and strategic partnerships. He has a strong focus on advising clients from the China region on their investments in Germany.

Tkatchenko advises on cross-border corporate transactions, restructuring, corporate law and liability issues, with a focus on the energy and infrastructure and technology sectors. He joined Orrick in 2011 from leading German independent Hengeler Mueller, making partner in 2018. 

In 2022 the trio led an Orrick team that advised German telecoms infrastructure business Vantage Towers on its partial sale to KKR and GIP – one of the biggest take-private transactions in German business history.  

Kai Liebrich, HSF’s Germany managing partner, said the incoming partners were respected and well-known practitioners in the German market, adding their hire “marks a significant addition to our corporate platform in Germany and our pan-European offering for clients”.

The incoming group will take HSF’s Germany corporate team to 29 lawyers including nine partners across offices in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, according to its website. The team was also boosted early last year with the hire of private capital partner Gregor Klenk from Goodwin Procter. 

Sönke Becker, HSF’s Germany corporate head, has acted for clients including Deustche Lufthansa, Softbank Group and Rheinmetall, while other partners in the team have counselled BP, Deutsche Post and the Qatar Investment Authority among others on their transactions and corporate matters. 

Meantime, the team’s exit from Orrick halves its Düsseldorf corporate team, leaving it with nine lawyers according to the firm’s website. The firm also has eight corporate lawyers based in its other German office in Munich. 

A firm spokesperson commented: “We are grateful to Oliver, Wilhelm and Nikita for their contributions to our firm and we wish them well.”

Orrick made a major corporate play elsewhere in Europe recently, adding the former head of legacy Shearman & Sterling’s Italian M&A practice, Fabio Fauceglia, and his team of six lawyers in Milan last May. 

Last November HSF announced it planned to open an office in Luxembourg with a trio of hires from A&O Shearman and Maples & Calder, in a move the firm said further pointed to its commitment to private capital. 

HSF is also set to significantly expand this year should its planned merger with US firm Kramer Levin get the nod. The partnerships of both firms will vote in mid-February to secure an official merger at the start of May, according to law.com.