Clifford Chance has promoted 28 lawyers to partner in its latest global promotions round, including six in the US and nine in London.
The cohort is in line with the past few rounds, which have hovered around 30 partners, and includes nine women – 32% of the total and again in line with previous years.
However, the number of US promotions is a marked step up on 2024 and 2025, when one was made up in each round. This time there are three promotions in New York, one in Washington DC and two in the Houston office the firm opened in 2023.
The firm has been aggressively expanding its US partnership over the past few years, particularly across private equity, corporate M&A and restructuring and insolvency, and cited strong US growth as a driver for its 9% revenue increase to £2.4bn in the year to 30 April 2025.
There have also been senior exits, however, including the departure of its former US funds leaders Cliff Cone and Michael Sabin for Sidley Austin earlier this year.
There are nine promotions in London, including Benjamin Harding and Oliver Clarke in the funds and asset management practice and Cameron Dwyer and Rebecca Trapp in the tax, pensions, employment and incentives team. The rest of the London promotions are spread across private equity, real estate, restructuring, disputes and corporate transactions.
There have also been three promotions in Paris, where over the past few months the firm has seen a four-lawyer private equity team leave for Latham & Watkins and a seven-lawyer team exit to launch a funds practice for Gibson Dunn, alongside two apiece in Madrid and Düsseldorf, and one each in Frankfurt and Brussels.
Meanwhile, in Asia, there is one promotion each in Hong Kong and Tokyo, with the final two promotions going to John Karantonis and Rebecca Elgar in Sydney in the private equity and real estate practices, respectively.
The corporate transactions and advisory practice has gained the most new partners, with five, followed by four in the private equity team and three each in the real estate and tax, pensions, employment and incentives practices. There are two promotions each in disputes, capital markets, project development and finance, debt finance, funds and asset management.
Charles Adams, CC’s global managing partner, commented: “These promotions recognise lawyers who consistently operate at the highest level, delivering outstanding results for clients on their most complex, cross-border matters. They play a pivotal role in the firm’s strong performance, deepening key client relationships and driving the next phase of our growth strategy.”
For the second year running, 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 previously stated diversity ambitions in the face of the Trump administration’s hostility towards law firm diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Clifford Chance had set diversity targets in 2020 that included a target that by 2025 15% of new US and UK partners that disclosed their ethnicity would identify as underrepresented minority ethnic.
The promotions are effective from 1 May 2026.
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