US firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has elevated nine lawyers to partner in its latest promotion round, which also saw eight promoted to counsel and six to senior attorney.

The latest batch of partners is two fewer than the 11 that made the cut last year. This year’s cohort includes six women, or 67% of the new partners, up from 27% last year. The promotion round brings the firm’s global partnership total to 176.

New York, London and Paris saw the most partner promotions with two each, including New York-based bankruptcy lawyer Thomas Kessler and tax lawyer Susanna Parker and London-based capital markets lawyer Chrishan Raja and litigation specialist Naomi Tarawali. Frankfurt and Hong Kong also saw one promotion each. 

The firm’s capital markets practice is boosted by three newly minted partners, while litigation and arbitration and M&A get two and tax and bankruptcy and restructuring get one each. Cleary Gottlieb ranked 10th in Refinitiv’s M&A advisory league tables at the end of the third quarter, working on 89 deals worth just shy of $176bn – that was up from a ranking of 29th in 2021.

Michael Gerstenzang, the firm’s managing partner, said: “These talented lawyers reflect the breadth of substantive expertise and geographic presence that our clients seek, and have demonstrated their commitment to our firm’s values and culture. As new partners, counsel and senior attorneys, they will continue our rich tradition of bringing together talented people with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to solve challenging problems for our clients worldwide.”

Those making counsel include Rome-based antitrust lawyer Fausto Caronna and financial institutions expert Laura Prosperetti. Washington DC-based antitrust lawyer Matthew Bachrack also made counsel, as did Milan-based litigation lawyer Paolo Bertoli – one of four Italian promotions in the overall round. Milan debt finance lawyer Alessandro Gennarino was also promoted to senior attorney.

In addition to the European-heavy promotion round (13 out of the 23 promotions in total), Cleary Gottlieb also made some relatively rare lateral partner hires on the continent this year, including competition and antitrust lawyer Isabel Rooms from Linklaters and M&A lawyer and Herbert Smith Freehills’ former German managing partner Nico Abel in Frankfurt.