High-profile banking duo Allen and Goetz to quit Freshfields
Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz, the high-profile banking partners recruited last year from White & Case, are to quit Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer less than 18 months after joining. An internal announcement was sent out today (3 August) notifying the firm of the move, which will see the pair leave Freshfields at the end of August.
August 03, 2009 at 10:38 AM
2 minute read
Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz, the high-profile banking partners recruited last year from White & Case, are to quit Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer less than 18 months after joining.
An internal announcement was sent out today (3 August) notifying the firm of the move, which will see the pair leave Freshfields at the end of August.
Freshfields' insiders said the decision was amicable and that Allen and Goetz were expected to focus on a more entrepreneurial environment. The move, which ends weeks of speculation regarding the pair, marks a dramatic, and swift, end to one of the most high profile lateral hires ever made in the City.
The two banking lawyers had joined Freshfields in March 2008 after well-published tensions with the firm-wide management of White & Case.
During his 20-year career Allen has established a reputation as one of the City's most high profile acquisition finance lawyers via stints at Clifford Chance, Weil Gotshal & Manges and White & Case.
The US-qualified Goetz formed a close working relationship with Allen at White & Case and the pair were regarded as instrumental to the rapid expansion of the US firm's City banking practice, which Allen joined in 2000 from Weil Gotshal.
As such their appointment was highlighted as evidence of Freshfields' desire to bolster its banking practice. However, the move came just months before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, which heralded a full-blown crisis in global banking.
The crisis had a brutal impact on acquisition finance work, with most deal finance teams focusing instead on restructuring deals closed during the boom. This left those partners whose reputations had been built on winning new business rather than 'at the coalface' practice-management facing a market where there was precious little business to win.
Allen's career has also been dogged with controversy, with the banking lawyer's mercurial personality and impatience with senior management frequently causing internal friction.
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