Freshfields beefs up US litigation team with triple partner hire

Commercial litigator Marshall Fishman has joined the magic circle firm from Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel alongside Timothy Coleman, who joins from Dewey & LeBoeuf, where he was co-chair of the white collar crime practice.

They are joined at Freshfields by securities and financial litigator Walter Stuart, who joins from Vinson & Elkins’s Texas office.

Fishman will be based in the firm’s New York office, where he will continue to represent major financial institutions in complex litigation. Stuart, who represents banks and investment funds, will also be based in New York.

Former US attorney Coleman will be based in Washington DC. In his previous role at the Department of Justice he oversaw the Enron prosecution and headed the Corporate Fraud Tax Force.

Head of Freshfields’ dispute resolution group Chris Pugh said: “I’m very excited that we’re able to build out our existing team. We are seeing increasing client demand and a real interest in a US litigation practice with global capabilities, and leading US litigators.

“We’ve brought in three very high-quality partners and continue with our strategy of building a very high-quality team that’s able to provide the type of service our international clients look for in the US, and that differentiates us from our competitors.”

Freshfields launched its US litigation practice in January 2009 with partners Aaron Marcu, Benito Romano and Adam Siegel, all former federal prosecutors (22 January 2009).

In July 2009 the team was bolstered with the arrival of David Onorato, a former director of litigation at Bank of America (13 July 2009).

Pugh did not rule the possibility of future expansion adding: “We’ll respond to the market and our clients. We anticipate there’ll be more demand for our services, particularly in relation to regulatory issues, so we would expect to see the team grow, but it’ll only do so with the right type of people.”