headquarters 65 fleet street london united kingdom no . of offices 27 no . of lawyers partners 427 associates 1 611 1 no . of employees approx . 4 859 2 major practice areas banking & finance capital markets competition antitrust corporate m & a international arbitration litigation private equity projects & energy tax key people edward braham senior partner chris pugh joint managing partner stephan eilers joint managing partner michael lacovara executive partner revenue 1.33 billion 2015 16 3 profit per equity partner 1.47 million 2015 16 3 date founded 1743 founder samuel dodd and james william freshfield company type limited liability partnership website www.freshfields.com freshfields bruckhaus deringer llp informally freshfields or fbd founded in 1743 is a multinational law firm headquartered in london and a member of the magic circle of elite british law firms . freshfields is the oldest firm within the magic circle and is reported to be the oldest international law firm in the world . 4 its origins can be traced back to the early 18th century when it was appointed solicitor to the bank of england . it continues to advise the bank of england today . freshfields is the top ranked law firm for european uk and asia pacific m & a. 5 as of 2015 it is the only magic circle firm to feature in the top five law firms in the world by deal value and is the highest ranked law firm by value in european m & a. 6 in thomson reuters uk m & a charts for 2014 freshfields closed 91 transactions worth over 118 billion over 50 % more by value than the second ranked law firm . contents 1 history 2 awards 3 references 4 external links history edit freshfields traces its british origins to 1743 when partner samuel dodd was appointed solicitor to the bank of england . 7 freshfields have been the bank s legal adviser ever since . freshfields recent mandates include advising the bank of england northern rock and german government throughout the 2008 financial crisis ; and advising the uk government on the privatisations of royal mail northern rock lloyds bank royal bank of scotland and eurostar . the firm has 27 offices in 17 jurisdictions across asia europe the middle east and north america . it advises national and multinational corporations financial institutions and governments . james william freshfield the first freshfield to join the firm adopted the crest of john freshfield of norwich as his own having seen it as a boy . it was later used as the firm s mark . the emblem represents st michael who is depicted as an angel with a spear . 8 clients of the firm have included william gladstone sir robert peel and nathan meyer rothschild . 9 bruckhaus westrick heller l ber traced its history back to hamburg in 1840 ; at the time of its merger with freshfields it was one of the two largest law firms in germany . 4 10 deringer tessin herrmann & sedemund was founded in 1962 by arved deringer and claus tessin and had been based in cologne since 1970 . freshfields bruckhaus deringer was created in 2000 when u.k. based freshfields merged with two law firms germany based deringer tessin herrmann & sedemund and germany austria based bruckhaus westrick heller l ber . 11 12 the firm changed its name as different partners joined or left the firm until james william freshfield 1775 1864 was elected partner . 7 james freshfield his sons and grandsons worked at the firm until the last freshfield retired in 1918 . awards edit global law firm of the year who s who legal awards 2013 2014 ; most highly regarded m & a law firm in the world who s who legal 2012 2013 and 2014 ; 13 european m & a legal adviser of the year mergermarket european awards 2014 ; 14 m & a team of the year asia asia legal awards 2015 ; 15 m & a team of the year british legal awards 2014 ; 16 m & a team of the year iflr european awards 2010 ; m & a team of the year british legal awards 2009 and 2008 ; germany law firm of the year ; uk law firm of the year chambers europe awards for excellence 2009 ; most innovative law firm financial times innovative lawyers awards 2009 ; law firm of the year the lawyer awards 2008 ; international law firm of the year plc which lawyer awards 2008 . freshfields has been the top ranked firm in the world for expertise in antitrust and competition law in the global competition law global elite law firms index for a number of years . 17 references edit freshfields bruckhaus deringer llp true picture . chambers student . http www.freshfields.com uploadedfiles locations global who we are new cr reporting cr report 2014.pdf a b lawyer https www.thelawyer.com issues online july 2016 freshfields tops magic circle pep with 1 47m the lawyer check url value help . missing or empty title help a b freshfields brockhaus deringer . legal week . 14 december 2009 . walker rose 6 october 2015 . freshfields skadden and dla piper top m & a rankings as deal volumes hit two year low . legal week . skadden reigns again in worldwide m & a deal rankings after losing out to weil last year . a b slinn judy 1993 freshfields 1743 1993 london freshfields uk graduates home . freshfields . slinn judy 1984 . a history of freshfields . london freshfields . oclc 59021160 . sights set on the big three . the lawyer . 28 february 2000 . freshfields kings of europe . thelawyer.com . 29 march 2004 . retrieved 2011 08 08 . chambers and partners firm profile . chambersandpartners.com . retrieved 2011 08 08 . http whoswholegal.com awards firmoftheyear mergermarket european m & a awards 2015 . mergermarket group digital . winners announced for asia legal awards 2015 . international . 4 march 2015 . winners the british legal awards 2016 . 01 . freshfields bruckhaus deringer . global competition review . external links edit official website v t e magic circle law firms allen & overy clifford chance freshfields bruckhaus deringer linklaters slaughter and may barristers chambers blackstone chambers brick court chambers essex court chambers fountain court chambers one essex court retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title freshfields bruckhaus deringer & oldid 740421028 categories law firms based in londonlaw firms of the united kingdom1743 establishments in great britainlaw firms established in 2000foreign law firms with offices in the united statesforeign law firms with offices in hong kongforeign law firms with offices in japancompanies established in 1743multinational companies headquartered in the united kingdomhidden categories pages with citations lacking titlespages with citations having bare urlspages with url errors navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutsch fran ais lietuvi portugu s edit links this page was last modified on 20 september 2016 at 23 52 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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