Freshfields has continued to bolster its international criminal law practice with the hire of a corporate defence lawyer from German boutique Krause & Kollegen.

Daniel Travers will join Freshfields' criminal law team in Duesseldorf as a counsel this November, after six years at the Berlin firm where he was an attorney-at-law.

The move follows the magic circle firm's hire of Simone Kaempfer as its the head of its white-collar defence group in Germany, as well as a number of other recruits for the practice around the world.

Kaempfer joined from German boutique Thomas Deckers Wehnert Elsner in February this year, while other recent additions have included the London hire of former Serious Fraud Office joint head of bribery and corruption Ben Morgan last year, as well as former US Department of Justice prosecutor Dan Braun, who joined the firm's Washington DC base in 2016.

Kaempfer told Legal Week: "With this hire, we are taking the next step in building an even stronger, highly specialised criminal law practice group. Daniel's multijurisdictional, international expertise will significantly strengthen the successful development of our practice – both domestically and globally."

Travers focuses on advising companies and defending individuals on criminal law matters, both in and out of court, while he also handles criminal law-related compliance issues and internal investigations.

In a statement, he said: "Freshfields has an outstanding criminal law and investigations team and, with Simone Kaempfer having joined, has impressively affirmed its commitment to criminal law in a global law firm. I'm very much looking forward to supporting this team with my experience as a defence lawyer in commercial criminal law matters."

As head of the white-collar defence group in Germany, Kaempfer works in tandem with Norbert Nolte, who leads the firm's dispute resolution practice in Germany and Austria.

In recent years, Freshfields has been busy defending Volkswagen and its subsidiaries in civil and class actions stemming from the emissions test rigging scandal, while earlier this year the firm was brought in by UBS to review the Swiss banking giant's handling of a female trainee's allegation that she was raped by a male colleague.