Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has teamed up with New York's Sullivan & Cromwell to advise Reed Elsevier on its $4.1bn (£2.1bn) acquisition of ChoicePoint.

The magic circle firm is acting alongside Sullivan to advise Reed, with Sullivan advising on US aspects.

London corporate partner Julian Long is leading the team for Freshfields, acting alongside partners including David Aitman (competition) and Edward Evans (finance), who advised on a new $4.65bn (£2.3bn) debt facility.

Freshfields is currently advising Reed on its planned divestment of Reed Business Information, while Long recently advised on the sale of Reed's Harcourt education businesses in two separate deals worth around £2.5bn.

Sullivan corporate partner Jim Morphy is heading the team acting for Reed in relation to the proposed merger of ChoicePoint – which provides data analytics to the insurance sector – with Reed's LexisNexis Risk Information Analytics Group.

The deal is expected to complete within the next few months and will create a risk management business with revenues of $1.5bn (£742m).

Freshfields and Sullivan are acting opposite New York leader Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, where corporate partner Edward Herlihy is representing ChoicePoint.