Freshfields creates EPB development post

•Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has created a new job description for a senior lateral hire focused on developing the firm's employment practice. The magic circle firm's employment, pensions and benefits (EPB) group has hired the founder and managing director of Ius Laboris, the international network of firms that specialise in employment law. Jean-François Gerard joins Freshfields' Brussels office as the firm's first international practice development lawyer. He will focus mainly on business development rather than fee-earning. The role is unique to the EPB group and there are no plans to extend it to the rest of the firm.