Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Baker & McKenzie have taken lead roles on Abbott Laboratories' $7.1bn (£4.5bn) acquisition of pharma company Solvay's drug unit, reports The Am Law Daily.

Solvay turned to a team from Freshfields led by corporate partners Geert Verhoeven in Brussels and Timothy Wilkins in New York.

The acquisition, which will give Abbott control of new drugs and expand its access to non-US markets, is a private all-cash deal that does not include the exchange of public shares.

Abbott relationship partner Pablo Garcia-Moreno is leading the team advising the healthcare company on the acquisition. Garcia-Moreno has represented Abbott on several deals in the past, including its $6.9bn (£4.3bn) acquisition of BASF's pharma business and the spin-off of Abbott's hospital products unit into a separate $4.5bn (£2.8bn) company.

Freshfields and Bakers won roles on the mega-deal after decades of service for Solvay and Abbott respectively. Bakers has advised Abbott on dozens of transactions and has represented the company since the mid-20th century. The demands of representing a company as large as Abbott was one of the key drivers behind Bakers' move to open several international offices in the 1950s, a process that would ultimately result in the firm becoming a 70-office global behemoth.

Freshfields' London office began representing Solvay more than 20 years ago, and the firm's Brussels office became Solvay's go-to source for outside counsel as the firm expanded the office in the 1990s. Freshfields has advised Solvay on several recent deals, including its $1.3bn (£819m) acquisition of polymer producer Ausimont in 2001.

Cleary Gottlieb Hamilton & Steen is handling antitrust work for Abbott. The deal will require antitrust approval in Europe and the US, though Verhoeven says the companies do not expect any significant antitrust hurdles.

This article first appeared on The Am Law Daily blog on americanlawyer.com.