Slaughter and May has promoted three new lawyers into the firm’s partnership – a 50% decrease the last year, and the smallest cohort since 2019.
Simon Bartle and Mark Gulliford have become partners in the firm’s real estate and projects practice, and Jack Dickie has made partner in competition. The trio have been at the firm 16, 14 and 11 years respectively.
Since 2019, when the firm only made up two partners, each year’s promotion class has seen five or more lawyers promoted, with the largest class in the period elected in 2023, when 10 lawyers joined one of law’s most traditional partnerships.
Last year the firm promoted six new partners across competition, infrastructure, investigations and disputes, corporate, and restructuring and insolvency.
‘I am delighted that we have elected three new partners. They each bring valuable expertise and perspective and will make strong contributions to our clients and the firm,’ Slaughters senior partner Roland Turnill said.
Last year the firm elected M&A partner David Johnson as its second-ever managing partner, with Johnson succeeding Deborah Finkler, who had been in post since 2022, on 1 August.
Johnson was been elected for a standard five-year term, in line with Turnill, who began his five-year term in May 2024.
Slaughters is one of the last firms to stand by the traditional lockstep model of partnership, as competitors modify their locksteps to be better able to win and retain talent in the world’s most competitive legal markets.
The firm remains prestigious, and last year it scored highest with clients for partner quality among any firm, according to client satisfaction data compiled by Legal 500.
Slaughters also rarely sees partner departures, though corporate partner Mark Zerdin did move to Paul Hastings last month, exiting after 23 years at the firm.
Last month, the firm took the lead role on the sell-side as US asset manager Nuveen announced its planned acquisition of Schroders. The deal, worth just shy of £10bn, will see Slaughter and May take £23.5m in fees, with Clifford Chance billing Nuveen’s parent company £14.3m.
Bartle, Gulliford, and Dickie will officially join the partnership from 1 May.
