Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has added transactional attorneys Noah Carr (L) and Gordon Palmquist as partners in its Tokyo office from Latham & Watkins and Mayer Brown, respectively.

Carr, who had been with Latham since 2019, has over a decade of experience advising on complex public and private M&A and strategic alliances, serving a variety of Japanese corporates and investors as well as international financial sponsors.

He is a regular adviser to Softbank and has guided them on more than 15 transactions in a variety of jurisdictions. His client list also includes Minerva Growth Capital, Warburg Pincus, ARA Asset Management, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Rakuten, Toshiba and Alibaba.

Palmquist, who joined Mayer Brown from Shearman & Sterling in 2018, advises Japanese trading houses, corporates, and financial services institutions on outbound M&A, carve-outs and sales of businesses, corporate governance and private equity, real estate, infrastructure and venture capital investments.

Freshfields now has 10 partners in its Tokyo office, one of the highest among international law firms in the country.

Mayer Brown now has three partners in Tokyo, including M&A specialist Eiji Kobayashi, who joined earlier this year from Greenberg Traurig.

Latham has six partners in Tokyo following Carr’s departure.