Clifford Chance (CC) has announced the election of 31 lawyers to partner in its latest global promotions round, including five in Paris and three in Singapore.

The 2025 intake is slightly larger than last year’s 29-strong cohort and includes 10 women – 32% of the total – down from 2024 when women made up 38% of the tally. 

As in previous years, the round was dominated by the firm’s global financial markets (GFM) and corporate practice areas, which welcomed 12 and 11 new partners respectively. 

Litigation and dispute resolution saw five lawyers made up and tax, pensions and employment two, with the final promotion going to real estate lawyer Leonhard Rudolph in London. 

By location, the firm’s London headquarters again saw the most promotions – 12 this time – including four apiece in the corporate and GFM teams. The firm also boosted its London bench in January with the hire of M&A heavyweight Bruce Embley, who joined from Skadden as part of a private capital growth push that has also seen CC pick up private equity partners in New York and Singapore from O’Melveny & Myers and Herbert Smith Freehills respectively. 

There were 14 promotions across continental Europe, including five in Paris as the firm restocked its bench after a team led by three partners left late last year to open Ropes & Gray’s office in the city. M&A lawyer Catherine Naroz got the nod in the corporate team alongside one promotion in the GFM practice, two in the litigation team and tax transactions lawyer Pierre Goyat’s elevation in the tax and pensions team. 

Elsewhere in Europe, there were three promotions in Germany across Düsseldorf and Munich, two apiece in Madrid and Amsterdam and one each in Brussels and Milan. 

There were also three promotions in Singapore and one in Dubai, with the final promotion going to antitrust lawyer Michael van Arsdall in Washington DC.

The firm has been concentrating on stateside growth, increasing its US lawyer headcount by 8% over the past year to 385 lawyers including 121 partners, according to publicly available data tracked by Pirical. That compares to 4% growth in headcount across the firm, Pirical data shows.

Recent joiners include a trio of partners from O’Melveny & Myers in New York and corporate M&A partner Bryan Luchs and international trade partner Karalyn Mildorf in Washington DC from White & Case. 

Charles Adams, Clifford Chance’s global managing partner, commented: “We’re committed to investing in and nurturing our top talent in areas where we can have the most impact on our clients’ success. These exceptional individuals represent our high-performing, collaborative culture and continued focus on supporting our clients’ most critical challenges.”

For the first time in five years, the announcement has not been accompanied by any diversity metrics. This is in line with the decision by many US and transatlantic law firms to de-emphasise their stated diversity ambitions in the face of the Trump administration’s hostility towards law firm diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

A spokesperson declined to comment on the status of Clifford Chance’s targets, which were set in July 2020 and included a target that by this year 15% of new US and UK partners that disclosed their ethnicity would identify as underrepresented minority ethnic.

A full list of the new promotions can be found here.