Freshfields received cross-practice recognition in the 2025 Legal 500 United States rankings. Highlights include Tier 1 rankings for Dispute Resolution – International Arbitration, for which the firm has been continuously ranked Tier 1 for the past 16 years; M&A/Corporate and Commercial – Corporate Governance; along with four newly ranked lawyers and numerous improved individual rankings.

Additional recognitions include:

• Antitrust – Civil litigation/class actions: defense
• Antitrust – Merger control
• Dispute resolution – International litigation
• Dispute resolution – M&A litigation: defense
• Dispute resolution – Securities litigation: defense
• Dispute resolution – General commercial disputes
• Finance – Capital markets: debt offerings
• Finance – Capital markets: debt offerings – Advice to underwriters
• Finance – Capital markets: equity offerings – Advice to issuers
• Finance – Capital markets: equity offerings – Advice to managers
• Finance – Commercial lending – Advice to borrowers
• Finance – Commercial lending – Advice to direct lenders/private credit
• Finance – Commercial lending: Advice to bank lenders
• Finance – Financial services regulation – Banking
• Finance – Restructuring (including bankruptcy): corporate
• Healthcare – Life sciences
• International trade and national security – CFIUS  – CFIUS
• International trade and national security – Customs, export controls and economic sanctions
• Labor and employment – Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional
• M&A/corporate and commercial – M&A: large deals ($1bn+)
• M&A/corporate and commercial – Private equity buyouts: large deals ($500m+)
• Media, technology and telecoms – Cyber law (including data privacy and data protection)
• Media, technology and telecoms – Technology transactions
• Tax – International tax
• Tax – U.S. taxes: non-contentious

Freshfields’ lawyers received 34 individual rankings, in addition to recognition for dozens of other U.S. lawyers across the firm’s corporate, dispute resolution and regulatory practices:

• Elizabeth Bieber (Next Generation Partners), Corporate governance (Next Generation Partners: Advice to boards), Shareholder activism
• Nigel Blackaby (Hall of Fame), International arbitration
• Stephanie Brown Cripps (Next Generation Partners), Customs, export controls and economic sanctions
• Colin Costello (Leading Associates), CFIUS
• Mary Eaton (Leading Partners) M&A litigation: defense and Securities litigation: defense
• Sebastian Fain (Leading Partners), M&A: large deals ($1bn+)
• Boris Feldman (Hall of Fame), Securities litigation: defense
• Valerie Ford Jacob (Hall of Fame), Capital markets: debt offerings and Capital markets: equity offerings
• Nicole Foster (Leading Partners) Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional
• Elliot Friedman (Leading Partners), International arbitration
• Jenny Hochenberg (Leading Partners), M&A: large deals ($1bn+)
• Vinita Kailasanath (Next Generation Partners), Life sciences
• Ethan Klingsberg (Hall of Fame), M&A: large deals ($1bn+)
• Meredith Kotler (Hall of Fame), M&A litigation: defense; (Leading partners), Securities litigation: defense
• Christine Lyon (Leading Partners) Cyber law (including data privacy and data protection)
• Pamela Marcogliese (Hall of Fame), Corporate governance; (Next Generation Partners), Capital markets: debt offerings
• Noiana Marigo (Leading Partners), International arbitration
• Aimen Mir (Leading Partners), CFIUS
• Caroline Richard (Leading Partners), International arbitration
• Lee Rovinescu (Next Generation Partners), International arbitration
• Jordan Salzman (Leading Associates) Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional
• Sarah Solum (Leading Partners), Capital markets: equity offerings
• Claude Stansbury (Leading Partners), International tax
• Paige von Mehren (Leading Associates), International litigation
• Nabeel Yousef (Next Generation Partners), Customs, export controls and economic sanctions
• Marissa Yu (Leading Associates), Technology transactions
• Kimberly Zelnick (Next Generation Partners), International litigation
• Damien Zoubek (Leading Partners),M&A: large deals ($1bn+)
• Taryn Zucker (Next Generation Partners), Capital markets: equity offerings

Rankings are determined by Legal 500’s research team based on data pertaining to matters and innovations achieved by the firm for clients, thought leadership introduced by attorneys and feedback from peers and clients, including industry-leading, publicly traded companies in the U.S.