White & Case Hires Two Freshfields M&A Partners in Tokyo as Japanese Cross-Border Dealmaking Hits Record Highs

White & Case has hired corporate mergers and acquisitions partners Noah Carr and Gordon Palmquist from Freshfields in Tokyo, bolstering its cross-border M&A practice in Japan at a moment when dealmaking in the market has reached unprecedented levels. The lateral move intensifies an already fierce competition among international law firms for senior transactional talent in Tokyo, where a limited pool of qualified cross-border M&A lawyers is being competed over by an expanding roster of US and UK firms. Japan has emerged as one of the most active M&A markets globally, driven by a combination of corporate governance reform pressure (pushing listed Japanese companies to unlock holding structures and improve returns on equity), yen weakness making Japanese assets attractive to foreign acquirers, and domestic conglomerate restructuring. These structural dynamics have made Tokyo one of the highest-priority growth markets for international law firms with transactional ambitions in Asia. The hire is the latest in a series of high-profile lateral moves in the Tokyo market, as firms including Kirkland & Ellis and Paul Hastings have also been active in the London and international lateral market. For Freshfields, the loss of two M&A partners in a single office represents a tangible competitive setback in a market it has long sought to lead.