- published: 22 Mar 2013
- views: 6732
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (informally Freshfields) is a global law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom and a member of the 'Magic Circle' of leading English law firms. It is the second-largest law firm in the world measured by revenues. In 2010-11 it achieved total revenues of £1.14 billion and profits per equity partner of £1.308 million. It has 27 offices in 16 countries across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America and employs around 2,500 legal advisers. It advises national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments.
Will Lawes is the firm's senior partner and Ted Burke is the managing partner.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer was created on 1 August 2000 when the UK-based Freshfields merged with Germany-based Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund and Bruckhaus Westrick Heller Löber.
Freshfields traced its origins back to at least 1743 in London, when Samuel Dodd, one of its partners, was appointed solicitor to the Bank of England. The law firm changed its name with different partners until James William Freshfield (1775-1864) was elected partner. A symbol of the archangel Michael, part of the Freshfields family crest since the middle of the 18th century, also became the law firm's symbol. James Freshfield, his sons and grandsons continued in the service of the firm until the last Freshfield retired in 1918. Bruckhaus' history began in 1840 in Hamburg, while Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund was founded in 1962 by Arved Deringer and Claus Tessin and had been based in Cologne since 1970. The three-way merger in 2000 represented the ambition of all three firms of becoming an international law firm, and was described by the UK's Financial Times as "probably the most significant pan-European merger to date in the restructuring of Europe’s legal services."