Law firm Freshfields opens latest US office in Boston

Feb 24 (Reuters) - London-founded law firm Freshfields is pushing further into the U.S. legal market with a new office in Boston, joining an influx of large firms into the city in recent years.
The Boston outpost will focus on work for private capital, life sciences and emerging companies, said Matthew Goulding, a private equity M&A lawyer who is joining Freshfields from Latham & Watkins to lead the new office.
The city will "play an important role in our U.S. recruitment strategy given its proximity to some of the best colleges and universities" and its talent market, Freshfields senior partner Georgia Dawson said in a statement.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Paul Hastings, Blank Rome, Covington & Burling, Arnold & Porter and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld are among the other law firms that have opened new Boston offices in the past two years, chasing a mix of technology, life sciences, and private capital and funds work.
Freshfields' website lists about 500 lawyers across its other U.S. offices in New York, Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley, out of nearly 2,800 lawyers globally.
The firm recently hired several former U.S. officials leaving government after the change in administrations in Washington, including lawyers from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Freshfields last year hired two private equity dealmakers from Latham in New York, including Neal Reenan as a global co-head of private capital and Ian Bushner as head of U.S. private capital.
A spokesperson for Latham & Watkins, which has been on its own hiring spree, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Goulding's departure.

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