Just over two weeks after announcing the appoinment of Mitchell Presser and James Douglas to head its U.S. M&A and leveraged finance practices, respectively, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has lured an experienced M&A lawyer from Shearman & Sterling to its offices in New York.
The hiring of Peter Lyons is consistent with the ambitious plans for the Freshfields U.S. M&A practice outlined by Presser when spoke to IFLR1000 following his appointment on September 3. Presser spoke of a need to bring partners aboard and grow the practice aggressively, in keeping with the expansion of other areas of the firm in the U.S. such as antitrust, litigation, investigations, white-collar enforcement, and arbitration.
"We intend to build a broad, world-class full-service transactional practice in the U.S. focused on global transactions just as we have in the rest of the world," Presser commented.
Lyons comes to Freshfields with a transactional record that compares favorably with that of just about any M&A practitioner in the United States. He has worked on numerous cross-border transactions, a few highlights of which include JetBlue Airways Corporation's sale of LiveTV and of 19% of its common stock to Deutsche Lufthansa, Nokia Corporation's formation of Nokia Siemens Networks and its purchase of Siemens' interest in the new entity, and ArcelorMittal's joint acquisition, with Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation, of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA.
Lyons holds a J.D. from Georgetown Unviersity Law Center and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.