Sidley Austin has promoted three lawyers to the partnership in London, with a total of 29 new partners made up around the globe.
The new City partners are Florian Kamp in private equity, Jonathan Lafferty in commercial litigation and disputes, and Azeem Sulemanji in global finance.
By comparison, last year Sidley promoted only one lawyer to partner in its London office – life sciences specialist Chris Boyle.
The increase in London numbers comes despite a decline in total promotions of almost 24%, with a total of 29 lawyers making partner this year compared to 38 in 2024.
This year’s is the smallest partner promotions round since 2020, when the firm made up 28 partners, with two in London.
Most of the promotions this year are again in Sidley’s New York office, where nine lawyers made partnership. Of these, three were in the firm’s global finance team and two in private equity, with additional promotions in tax, M&A, restructuring, and commercial litigation and disputes.
Also in the US, Sidley has promoted six lawyers to partner in its Chicago office, four in Washington DC, two each in its Los Angeles and Century City offices, and one each in San Francisco and Dallas.
Meanwhile, the only other new partner made up in Europe was private equity lawyer Thomas Komanek, based in Munich.
Chair of Sidley’s management committee Yvette Ostolaza said in a statement: ‘This is an exceptional group of lawyers that have been elected to partner and promoted to counsel.’
She continued: ‘Each of them has demonstrated the attributes that are necessary to practice at the highest levels of our profession.’
The promotions will come into effect on 1 January 2026.
Also announcing new partners recently was Willkie, which made up 30 this year, including seven in London, up from 19 new partners total last year, of which one was in London.
Cooley made up a total of 23 new partners, up from 20 last year, with three new partners in London in each of the last two years.
Additionally, Mayer Brown promoted 36 new partners, with four in London, compared to 39 in total last year, with three in London.
King & Spalding promoted 27, with two in London, while Cleary‘s promotions round totalled 20, also with two in London.
Partner promotions at Weil and Vinson & Elkins were also down by one this year, as Weil made up 17 new partners compared to last year’s 18, while V&E made up ten, down from 11 last year.
In October, both White & Case and Latham & Watkins announced partner promotions, with the former promoting a total of 45 new partners, and the latter promoting 40.
Later in the month, the newly merged McDermott Will & Schulte promoted a total of 74 partners, with two in London.
Paul Weiss has also announced its promotions, with a total of 28 new partners made up firmwide, including eight in London.
The new partners promoted at Sidley are:
Europe:
- Florian Kamp, private equity, London
- Jonathan Lafferty, commercial litigation and disputes, London
- Azeem Sulemanji, global finance, London
- Thomas Komanek, private equity, Munich
United States:
- Dustin Anderson, tax, New York
- Rachel Fridhandler, M&A, New York
- MK Han, private equity, New York
- Emily Hunter, private equity, New York
- Luke Maiman, global finance, New York
- Michael Sweeney, global finance, New York
- Aleana Thomas, global finance, New York
- Jon Nuenz, commercial litigation and disputes, New York
- Patrick Venter, restructuring, New York
- Anika Hermann Bargfrede, M&A, Chicago
- Katie LaVoy, SEC and corporate governance, Chicago
- Abigail Molitor, commercial litigation and disputes, Chicago
- Takayuki Ono, white collar defense and investigations, Chicago
- John White, insurance, Chicago
- Caroline Wong, securities and shareholder litigation, Chicago
- Aaron Applebaum, global arbitration, trade and advocacy, Washington DC
- Ameneh Bordi, restructuring, Washington DC
- Stanley Boris, banking, payments and fintech, Washington DC
- Erin Kauffman, securities enforcement and regulatory, Washington DC
- Caleb Bowers, environmental health and safety, Los Angeles
- Alexandra Ruiz, commercial ligation and disputes, Los Angeles
- Shayona Schiely, global finance, Century City
- Jonathan Westreich, tax, Century City
- Lauren Freeman, antitrust and competition, San Francisco
- Jeri Leigh Miller, restructuring, Dallas
