Will Lawes will join Lazard as a managing director in Financial Advisory, effective January 9, 2017. Based in London, he will advise FTSE 100 and other boards on strategic and financial matters.

“Will is one of the most respected advisors in the city, having spent over 25 years counseling management teams and boards of the UK’s largest companies,” said William Rucker, CEO of Lazard London. “His expertise will be of tremendous advantage not only to our clients, but also to our colleagues in London and globally.”

Lawes was most recently senior partner and executive chairman of the global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, a position he held from January 2011, following six years as co-head of the firm’s Financial Institutions Group. He joined Freshfields in 1986 and became partner in 1994, principally focusing on public and private mergers and acquisitions, reorganisations and demergers, hostile M&A and activism defense and capital raisings.