Report: Freshfields Benefitted From Slave Trade

[WSJ Law Blog]

According to a recent report in the Financial Times, “two of the biggest names in the City of London had previously undisclosed links to slavery in the British colonies.” The names: banking scion Nathan Mayer Rothschild and, more notably for our purposes, James William Freshfield, the founder of the firm now known as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer — one of the UK’s top firms. Click here for the story.

In regard to Freshfields, reports the FT, the records show that he and his sons had several slave-owner clients, mostly based in the Caribbean. The lawyers acted as trustees of the owners’ estates and in one case tried to claim unpaid legal fees for the firm through the government scheme set up to compensate owners after abolition.

Both Rothschild, the bank, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer were quick to point to their predecessors’ anti-slavery credentials. Freshfields said James William Freshfield was an active member of the Church Missionary Society, “which was committed to … the abolition of the slave trade.”

In recent years, several institutions, many here in the U.S., have acknowledged their links to slavery. In some instances, the institutions have apologized. Those mentioned by the FT article: healthcare giant Aetna; insurance company New York Life; and financial-services firms JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia and Bank of America.