A Massachusetts judge Wednesday dismissed much of a legal recruiting firm's suit against Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer that alleged the firm cut it out of a placement fee for partner Ethan Klingsberg's move.

In dismissing four of the five counts against Freshfields, U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns of the District of Massachusetts faulted the lack of a written agreement between Freshfields and the plaintiff, Boston Executive Search Associates, known as ESA. The surviving claim was distinguishable from the others, the judge said.

ESA, in its suit filed last year, claimed it was working with then-Freshfields' U.S. corporate leader, Mitchell Presser, to bulk up the Magic Circle firm's U.S.-based corporate team and helped bring Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton partner Klingsberg to the firm but was never paid for its efforts. ESA vice president Justin Morimoto connected Klingsberg and Presser in November 2018, the suit said, but Presser later told ESA to "hold off" on working toward the potential move, which ESA took to mean Freshfields was not interested in Klingsberg's candidacy.