Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

A legal recruiting firm that claims it played a key role in the move by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton partner Ethan Klingsberg to Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer last month sued the law firm in federal court on Tuesday, saying it put Klingsberg on the firm's radar and hasn't been paid.

Boston Executive Search Associates wrote in its complaint that it was contacted in July 2018 by Mitchell Presser, the U.S. head of global transactions at Freshfields, and worked for more than a year to try to build up the Magic Circle firm's corporate team in the U.S. The recruiting firm said it discussed Freshfields with more than 300 candidates and put 35 of them on Freshfields' radar, resulting in seven meetings.

ESA claims that Justin Morimoto, a vice president at the recruiting firm, told Klingsberg about the opportunity at Freshfields in November 2018 and got a positive response. When Morimoto shared the news of its positive reception with Presser, he "expressed great interest in recruiting Klingsberg," the suit said.

"Presser told plaintiff ESA that he considered attorney Klingsberg to be an outstanding lateral partner candidate," the Boston federal district court suit said. But "later that afternoon"—referring to events on Nov. 7, 2018—"Presser told plaintiff ESA to 'hold off' further efforts regarding Ethan Klingsberg, indicating that defendant Freshfields was not interested in his candidacy."

The search firm alleged it contacted Freshfields after news of the move by Klingsberg and several other partners came out on Oct. 25, 2019, nearly a year after their initial conversations. But Presser "asserted that he had no recollection of discussing Klingsberg with plaintiff ESA on Nov. 7, 2018," and further claimed to have an email that showed another recruiter told Freshfields about a possible opportunity with Klingsberg before that date.

ESA, Presser and a representative for Freshfields didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mark Rosen, a recruiter who has been credited with placing Klingsberg at Freshfields, said in a phone interview Tuesday that he worked for more than a year to recruit Klingsberg. He said he wasn't familiar with ESA and would be "shocked" if its allegations against Freshfields were true.

ESA has previously sued Simpson Thacher & Bartlett over a partner placement fee of over $900,000 that it claimed to have been wrongfully denied. That matter appears to have been settled.

ESA is represented in its suit against Freshfields by Douglas Salvesen of Yurko, Salvesen & Remz, who also represented the recruitment firm in the Simpson Thacher case.

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