Latham & Watkins has picked up Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer competition partner Michael Esser in a boost to its German competition practice.
Esser joins Latham as a partner in the firm’s Düsseldorf office. He previously worked at Freshfields in Cologne.
The magic circle firm announced last year that it was closing its Cologne office, relocating partners and staff to Düsseldorf in a bid to create a “create a larger and broader” offering of more than 40 partners.
Esser has over 20 years’ experience advising German and international corporates on a range of merger control and contentious antitrust matters. He has a particular focus on the technology, media and telecommunications sector.
His arrival continues a string of high-profile hires for Latham in Europe and particularly in Germany. The US firm picked up four magic circle partners last year, with the hires of Clifford Chance trio Oliver Felsenstein, Burc Hesse and Alexandra Hagelüken and Linklaters’ Rainer Traugott. All save finance specialist Hagelüken joined the firm’s corporate practice.
Recent Latham competition hires include Elisabetta Righini, the former legal advisor to the EU Competition Commissioner, and Jonathan Parker, director of mergers at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
Latham German corporate co-chair Martin Neuhaus said in a statement the German competition authority was seeking to position itself as the top enforcer in Europe. He said Esser would also spend time in the firm’s Brussels office to strengthen Latham’s multi-jurisdictional practice.
Freshfields has seen a number of departures across continental Europe in recent months. Exits include global co-head of energy and natural resources, Anselm Raddatz, who joined Clifford Chance in Düsseldorf; competition partner Maria Trabucci, who took two lawyers with her to French boutique BDGS Associés in December; and a team of four Paris corporate partners are in talks to join Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe.