This report has been updated to reflect more information about the group's departure from Cleary.

A four-partner team from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has left the firm for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's New York office.

Leading the exit is mergers and acquisitions partner Ethan Klingsberg, who is joined by litigator Meredith Kotler and corporate lawyers Pamela Marcogliese and Paul Tiger. 

Klingsberg will lead U.S. M&A at Freshfields, which has recently represented clients such as Starbucks and BASF in high-profile M&A transactions.

A person familiar with his move said Klingsberg was highly sought after by other firms, which offered to outdo his compensation at Cleary, a lockstep compensation firm. With a book of business that was least $30 million, he was even offered a guarantee of a multimillion-dollar pay package for several years, the person said. 

Klingsberg's move is significant because it could signal more departures from lockstep firms, said Alisa Levin of Greene Levin Snyder, who places partners at elite firms and is a former Cleary associate. Levin compared Klingsberg's move to Freshfields – a firm that has moved away from a pure lockstep model – to Scott Barshay leaving Cravath, Swaine & Moore for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

"It will be open season on Cleary partners," as other firms will try to lure more partners from the firm, she said. "Cleary lawyers are known to be among the best and most creative in the field and previously regarded as virtually untouchable by other firms. If someone like [Klingsberg] can be poached, I think others are going to stop and think."

The group's move to Freshfields was not entirely smooth. One source said the partners were fired on Thursday before giving notice about their departure. A Cleary spokesperson confirmed the firing, but declined to comment further.

Klingsberg could not be reached for comment on Friday. In a statement, he said: "We are excited to be joining Freshfields' blue-chip platform. The service that we and our new colleagues at Freshfields will bring to clients promises to be awesome." He added: "We have all enjoyed our time at Cleary. The momentum and strategic focus at Freshfields will enable us to help our clients with unparalleled service for many years to come."

Earlier this year, New York M&A partner Tim Wilkins took on Freshfields' newly created client sustainability chief role.

Some of Klingsberg's recent client matters have included advising Google in the pending $2.6 billion acquisition of Looker Data Sciences and a prior $1.1 billion deal with HTC; representing Pinterest in its initial public offering and recapitalisation; representing key Levi Strauss & Co. shareholders in that company's IPO; advising Dun & Bradstreet in its $6.9 billion sale; and representing Agilent in a $1.17 billion acquisition.

Google has been a major client, including in its acquisitions of Waze, Motorola Mobility and other subsidiaries, as well as the restructuring of Google into Alphabet. Other recent clients listed on Klingsberg's former Cleary bio include Verizon, Goldman Sachs, Lowe's, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Square, Stanley Black & Decker, Tiffany & Co. and American Express.

For Cleary, the departures come on the heels of respected corporate finance partner Andrew Shutter's exit from the London office earlier this month after 22 years with the firm. In London, the firm also recently lost counsel Knox McIlwain, a banking regulatory expert who left to rejoin former Cleary partner Bob Penn at Allen & Overy in September.

The firm's ranks in New York have been stable during the past year, save for top bankruptcy partner James Bromley's move to Sullivan & Cromwell in March.

Cleary brought in more than $1.2 billion in revenue in 2018, placing the firm 21st in the Am Law 100.

Levin, the recruiter, noted that that the partners' move from Cleary could be a "one-off thing or it could start a domino effect; we don't know yet".

"The firm will do fine, it's an institution. It's highly respected," she said, but "there's more and more pressure to be able to retain your talent." She recommended that Cleary takes steps to make sure "[its] partners are committed to the culture and to the [lockstep] system".

Read more:

Dealmaker of the Year: Ethan Klingsberg of Cleary Gottlieb