Legal Business Blogs

BLP promotes 82% of its global round in London in property-focused promotions round

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has made 17 partner promotions worldwide, in a bumper round more than three times last year’s round of five. Of these 17, 82% were promoted in London and six in the firm’s real estate practice.

BLP, which is currently in merger talks with Greenberg Taurig, promoted 14 of 17 in London, while outside the City two partners were made up in Moscow and one in Singapore.

The firm’s real estate practice saw the most promotions, with six promotions all in the City; Adriano Amorese, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Liana Hewson, Ruth Miller, Matthew Peel and Laura Wild. Real estate is a big driver of the firm’s potential merger as property practices are core to both firms, with real estate contributing around 30% of BLP’s revenue, and Greenberg employing more than 300 property lawyers globally.

In the City office, from the corporate practice Gareth Jones and Kieran Saunders were made up, while one finance lawyer Peter Knust was made partner. Others promoted in the London office include litigators James Clarke, Polly James and Andrew Tuson and tax practitioners Matthew Poole and Paul Shaw.

BLP managing partner Lisa Mayhew (pictured) said: ‘It is a credit to BLP’s quality and culture that we are in a position where we can promote a large successful group of fine lawyers and people. Our new partners have demonstrated exemplary client development skills and the ability to grow their practices and we hope that they will now take an increasingly active role in the development of our firm and become our future leaders.’

Other firms to release their partner promotions this week include Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer which has announced 16 lawyers will make the cut to partnership this year, one less than last year when 17 were promoted. Meanwhile, Squire Patton Boggs promoted seven in the City in its latest global partnership round of 30, where it has made up the same number of partners across the world as it did last year.

victoria.young@legalease.co.uk 

Read more about the merger in the comment piece: ‘BLP and Greenberg Traurig – unique, compelling, bloody difficult.’

The full list of partner promotions is as follows: 

Gareth Jones, London, corporate

Anton Panchenkov, Moscow, corporate

Kieran Saunders, London, corporate

Peter Knust, London, finance

Simons Spells, Singapore, finance

James Clarke, London, litigation and corporate risk

Polly James, London, litigation and corporate risk

Andrew Tuson, London, litigation and corporate risk

Ivan Veselov, Moscow, litigation and corporate risk

Adriano Amorese, London, real estate

Sarah Fitzpatrick, London, real estate

Liana Hewson, London, real estate

Ruth Miller, London, real estate

Matthew Peel, London, real estate

Laura Wild, London, real estate

Matthew Poole, London, tax

Paul Shaw, London, tax