Linklaters has bolstered its employment law practice in Frankfurt with the arrival of René Döring, marking the firm’s second European hire from Magic Circle rival Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer this month. 

Occupational pension scheme expert Döring joins the firm as a partner after spending 15 years with Freshfields in Germany, the last 11 as a partner. He brings experience in acting for corporations and pension funds to Linklaters and a track record of successfully advising on outsourcing pension liabilities, designing pension schemes and looking after post-transactional restructurings. 

Döring also has a background in employment in tax law and advised on the employment and pensions aspects in a number of M&A transactions throughout his tenure with Freshfields.

His work includes advising Airbus on its €1.1bn sale of its defense electronics business to global investment firm KKR, as well as acting in Chinese chemical company ChemChina’s acquisition of German machine manufacturer Kraussmaffei for €925m. 

The move comes a little over a week after Linklaters announced the hire of private equity expert Florent Mazeron from Freshfields, who joined the firm’s corporate and M&A team in Paris. 

Linklaters’ German senior partner, Andreas Steck, said: “Not least in economically more difficult times for companies, the enormous importance of pension schemes becomes apparent. With René, we will strengthen and further expand our proven expertise in employment law by adding the area of pensions, which is important for our clients.” 

Matthew Devey, head of Linklaters’ German employment law practice, added that Döring is the “perfect” addition to the firm’s growing Germany-based employment team. 

“With him, we now see ourselves even more optimally positioned to advise on all factors of high-end employment law, both nationally and internationally,” he said in a statement. 

Döring will be joining Linklaters’ partnership network in Germany two weeks after the firm added promoted 35 partners across its international offices in a round that heavily favoured its European bases, including two appointments in Germany and three in France. 

Elsewhere in the world, Linklaters made a double partner hire in Hong Kong with the arrival of M&A lawyer Xiaoxi Lin from Kirkland Ellis and leveraged finance expert Alessandro Nolet from White & Case, boosting the firm’s corporate and banking teams’ presence in Asia.