The firm has made up 11 partners around the globe. Four of the new partners are based in London, and the rest are scattered across Duesseldorf, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Copenhagen, Shanghai, and Madrid.  Three females made partner: Melissa Murray, Elizabeth Belsey, and Coral Yanez.  Bird & Bird will have a total of 157 partners as of 1 May.  Other firms which have joined the promotions bandwagon include Linklaters which has elected 21 new partners globally whilst Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer appointed 15 partners last month and Allen & Overy 16. Slaughters made up seven lawyers, an increase of five from last year.