White & Case has promoted 40 in an increased partnership round with eight made up in the City. This year’s bumper global round increased by 29% on the previous year when the firm made up 31, with eight made up in the City.
The New York-based firm introduced two each to its M&A practice and its commercial litigation practice in London with international arbitration, financial restructuring and insolvency, banking, project finance and the white collar practice all gaining one.
London promotions made up 20% of this year’s round, down slightly on last year’s 26%. EMEA took the lion’s share of promotion with 21 made up to partnership while 17 were taken on in the Americas and a modest two were promoted in the Asia Pacific region.
White & Case London head Oliver Brettle said: ‘We continue to have a strong cohort of talented lawyers who we look at individually. We look at the trajectory of the business and we feel promoting these partners is correct. If you look forward in time you can never be absolutely sure whether the trajectory of promotions will continue because we are always looking at the way the business is progressing and our capacity to promote further associates into partnership.’
The firm has been actively bulking up its London offering over the past month with the US firm picking up Clifford Chance’s global banks sector co-head Patrick Sarch, BNY Mellon’s EMEA regulatory head James Greig and Berwin Leighton Paisner’s Michael Wistow who will join as the firm’s co-head of its tax practice in EMEA.
The firm has also taken a ten-partner project finance team from Herbert Smith Freehills in Australia, launching two offices in Melbourne and Sydney, Legal Business revealed in September.
White & Case has been aggressive in the City, aiming to have more than 500 lawyers in London in four years as part of its 2020 strategy. Revenue wise moved ahead of Latham & Watkins in 2015, with around £2m more in revenues with its London office posting revenues of £185m while Latham was behind at £183m.
Brettle (pictured) added: ‘We will continue to look at areas within the practice in London in which we feel there is either a need for further strengthening of the bench of existing talent or areas where we feel that through internal promotions and the like, we’re unable to satisfy client demand from existing partners.’
The promotions take effect from 1 January 2017.
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk
Global promotions in full:
EMEA
London
Paul Brumpton – Global International Arbitration Practice
Katja Butler – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice
Amanda Cowell – Global Commercial Litigation Practice
Ben Davies – Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice
Joanna Dimmock – Global White Collar Practice
Emma Foster – Global Banking Practice
Gareth Hodder – Global Project Finance Practice
Jarlath McGurran – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice
Frankfurt
Rebecca Emory – Global Capital Markets Practice
Hendrik Röhricht – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice
Markus Stephanblome – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice
Paris
Grégoire Karila – Global Capital Markets Practice
Kirsten Odynski – Global International Arbitration Practice
Brussels – Muriel Alhadeff – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice
Milan – Leonardo Graffi – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice
Hamburg – Justus Herrlinger – our Global Antitrust Practice
Prague – Jan Linda – Global Banking Practice
Riyadh -Ivan Paskal – Global Project Finance Practice
Abu Dhabi – Luke Robottom – Global International Arbitration Practice
Warsaw – Michał Subocz – Global Commercial Litigation Practice
Madrid – Yoko Takagi – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice
AMERICAS
New York
Raymond Azar – Global Project Finance Practice
Michael Deyong – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice
Binoy Dharia – Global Banking Practice
Steven Gee – Global Tax Practice
Kim Haviv – Global Commercial Litigation Practice
Bibiana Jaimes – Global Capital Markets Practice
Thomas MacWright – Global Financial Restructuring and Insolvency Practice
Damien Nyer – Global International Arbitration Practice
Kerry O’Rourke Perri – Private Clients Group
Andrew Weisberg – Global Capital Markets Practice
Washington DC
John Donaldson – Global Antitrust Practice
Brody Greenwald – Global International Arbitration Practice
Jane Rueger – Global Project Finance Practice
Kristen Young – Global International Arbitration Practice
Silicon Valley
Heather Burke – Global Antitrust Practice
Eric Lancaster – Global Intellectual Property Practice
Boston – Kate Dyson – Global White Collar Practice
ASIA-PACIFIC
Hong Kong – Melody Chan – Global Commercial Litigation Practice
Tokyo – Seiji Matsuzoe – Global Banking Practice