Freshfields lands $10bn Merck mandate as US momentum continues

Freshfields has landed the lead role for US pharma giant Merck on its $10 billion acquisition of UK-headquartered Verona Pharma.

The deal, announced on Wednesday (9 July), will see Merck acquire London-based (Nasdaq-listed) Verona in a move Bloomberg says is the company’s third-largest acquisition in decades. A big deal for Merck then, clearly.

Freshfields' US momentum

The mandate is the latest sign of how far Freshfields has come in its bid to break into the top tier of the US legal market.

The team advising Merck is led by Damien Zoubek and Jenny Hochenberg - two prominent hires from Cravath, brought in three years ago as part of a broader strategy to supercharge its US corporate practice. Their arrival was widely viewed as a major coup. Until that point at least, departures from Cravath were very rare.

Freshfields’ US growth has been stronger than any other Magic Circle firm over the past five years. Since bringing in M&A star Ethan Klingsberg from Cleary in 2019 (now co-head of US corporate), the firm has doubled down on high-profile laterals and is now widely considered to have built a genuine top-tier New York M&A practice - a key hallmark for any firm with so-called "global elite" aspirations, and an area where most Magic Circle peers have struggled to gain real traction.

The numbers support it. Freshfields ended 2024 as the fourth biggest M&A dealmaker globally, according to Bloomberg Law data, working on deals worth $264 billion. That included Johnson & Johnson’s $13 billion acquisition of Shockwave Medical, a mandate won over Cravath, long considered the gold standard in US M&A work.

In revenue terms, Freshfields’ US business brought in £391 million in 2023/24, according to the firm's most recent LLP accounts, a 147% increase since 2019. That’s the highest US revenue among Magic Circle firms (pre-A&O's merger with Shearman, at least) and also the fastest growth of any over that period.

Advising

Freshfields is advising Merck. In addition to Zoubek and Hochenberg, the lead team includes London-based M&A partners Kate Cooper and Rhys Evans.

Gibson Dunn is advising Merck on antitrust matters.

Latham & Watkins is advising Verona Pharma.