Legal Business

Freshfields makes high-profile lateral hire with Shearman’s Pick

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has scored a significant coup in hiring respected Shearman & Sterling partner and head of global project development and finance Tim Pick to boost its energy and natural resources capability.

Pick, described as ‘outstanding in all respects’ in the latest edition of The Legal 500, will join as a finance partner in London and will focus on advising clients in the energy and natural resources sector in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Freshfields’ head of international energy project finance, Alan Rae Smith, said: ‘Despite continued economic uncertainty, the increasing global appetite for energy and the challenge of ensuring long-term security of supply are global fundamentals that remain. Tim’s in-depth expertise in the energy sector and project finance in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and his exceptional client focus, will further boost our global offering in this area but in particular on large-ticket energy project financings.

“Tim’s in-depth expertise in the energy sector and project finance in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and his exceptional client focus, will further boost our global offering”
Alan Rae Smith, Freshfields 

Rae Smith himself joined Freshfields from Allen & Overy in 2010 and the firm made a string of laterals hires to its energy practice in Asia last year. It hired Allens partner Gavin MacLaren in South East Asia; Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy partner Mark Plenderleith in Tokyo and former Dewey & LeBoeuf Beijing partner Gang Yuan as counsel in China.

Pick joined Shearman in 1999 – and spent six years working in Abu Dhabi from 2003. He made partner in 2005 and was named head of international project development and finance in 2011.

jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk