Freshfields has hired a Kirkland & Ellis partner to its Munich office, as the firm aims to rebuild its PE practice following the departure of four partners last month to Latham & Watkins. Florian Sippel joins Freshfields in a rare hire for Freshfields in Germany, where the firm has made only six laterals in the past 25 years. The move comes after four Freshfields senior partners were poached by Latham & Watkins including outgoing continental Europe managing partner Markus Paul and global M&A co-head Wessel Heukamp, with one insider at the time calling the hires “the end of Freshfields PE in Germany” and “probably the biggest move the German market has seen in years.” Sources called this blow a direct result of the firm’s increasing focus away from Europe and towards the U.S. Sippel advises leading private equity funds and strategic investors, with a focus on the technology, e-commerce and software sectors. Over the years, he has advised private equity funds Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, and Triton, where he advised on the company’s €2 billion sale of heating supplies company Kelvion. He was formerly at Freshfields for seven years until 2021, based in Frankfurt, Munich and London when he joined Noerr as associate partner, joining Kirkland as partner in November 2024. He was part of the Freshfields team that advised Permira on its €14 billion acquisition of Adevinta in 2021. Sippel is now Freshfields’ first pure private equity partner in Munich, with the company’s headquartering its lucrative M&A side in Frankfurt. Kirkland was contacted for comment. Alongside the hire, Freshfields also announced five internal promotions, effective from January 1, ahead of its usual round on May 1, as the firm scrambles to fill the gaps left by the departing senior partners. The firm now has around 210 lawyers in Germany for M&A, of whom around one third are private equity lawyers, with 90 lawyers and 19 partners in Munich. “We are strengthening our overall position in M&A and Private Equity with today’s announcement, and we increase our deep industry expertise in technology, insurance, and infrastructure,” said Dr. Patrick Cichy, head of the corporate/M&A practice in Germany and Austria since May 2024. Dr. Arend von Riegen, global co-head of our private capital, added: “We are excellently positioned for the future to advise our private capital clients on all topics that are highly relevant to them.” With David Schwintowski, they now have their first partner in the firm who focuses entirely on the insurance sector, recently advising on the acquisition of the €1.6 billion Nünberger insurance. Newly-promoted partner Lukas Treichl is a member of the global transactions practice group with connections to private equity and co-head of Freshfields’ legal tech-focused lab in Berlin. The firm is also strengthening in infrastructure and energy by elevating private equity partner Carsten Bork in Frankfurt. Bork advised the German government on the $6 billion spin off of steel giant Thyssenkrupp’s shipbuilding arm. The firm is also further strengthening in Munich through the relocations of Frankfurt partner Heiner Braun, co-head of the consumer and healthcare sector group, and Stephan Waldhausen, who acts as global co-head of industrials across Dusseldorf and Munich.