International law firms unveil New York-focused partner promotions

International law firms unveil New York-focused partner promotions

The New York-based rival firms have chosen to promote more lawyers than they did last year

Simpson Thacher and Weil unveil bumper New York-focused partner promotion rounds

Amid the surging deal activity, international law firms, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Weil Gotshal & Manges have promoted a record-breaking 31 and 26 partners, respectively. The New York-based rival firms have chosen to promote more lawyers than was done in last year's trimmed-down rounds, when the numbers were 20 and 13, correspondingly.

This year's partner tally is the largest on record for Weil, which also added 57 new counsels to its ranks. Weil's gender balance ratio improved from 30 per cent to 42 per cent with 11 of the 26 spots going to women compared to 4 in 2020.

Weil's executive partner, Barry Wolf said, "We are thrilled to welcome this record class of incredibly talented lawyers to our partnership. Reflecting the strength and balance of our global practice, these new partners will be a vital part of our future growth and continued success as a firm."

The firm's New York headquarters was awarded the highest number of promotions, which stood at 14. Five more promotions were made across the firm's wider US network, with three in Washington DC and one each in Boston and Silicon Valley.

In terms of international appointments, Weil's London office gained the highest number of new partners outside the US with four city lawyers moving up the ladder. They were - Edward Freeman (private equity), Alexander Horstmann-Caines (banking and finance), Hayley Lund (litigation) and Jenny Davison (restructuring).

Earlier this year, the firm made two significant partner-level hires from UK Magic Circle firms in London. It grabbed corporate partner Murray Cox from Slaughter & May and anti-trust partner Jenine Hulsmann from Clifford Chance.

Weil's continental European appointments were down from three to one. However, with the sole spot going to tax lawyer Benjamin Rapp in Frankfurt, last year saw one promotion in Munich and two in Paris.

The final spot was awarded to private equity and mergers and acquisitions specialist Sandy Lin in the firm's Hong Kong office. The office had recently received a boost when it landed restructuring partner Kathleen Aka from Ropes & Gray.

The firm's core departments were represented by this year's cohort, with the highest number of lawyers moving up the ranks in Weil's private equity group (7), followed by litigation (4) and mergers and acquisitions (4). Other appointments were done across the firm's banking and finance (3), capital markets (2), restructuring (2), tax (2), real estate (1) and technology and intellectual property (1).

Simpson Thacher's bounce-back round also consisted of primarily US-based appointments, with more than half (17) of the spots going to lawyers in the firm's New York base. Ten lawyers got the nod across its US network, with six moving up in DC, three in Palo Alto and one in Los Angeles.

Recently, Simpson opened an office in Brussels, its first in mainland Europe. The dual-qualified UK and Italian competition lawyer Antonio Bavasso, who joined the firm's London office from Allen & Overy, runs it.