CMS and Addleshaw Goddard have unveiled record partnership promotion rounds accompanied by significant declines in the proportion of women made up.

Some 65 partners have been made up across the CMS network, five more than last year. The proportion of women, however, has fallen to 33% from 43% in 2022. That is the lowest proportion since 2017, when 27% of new partners were women. The high water mark for the firm was in 2019 when 47% of the cohort was female.

At Addleshaws, 20 lawyers were made up in a round that matched its record 2022 cohort. However, just six of the new partners are women (30%), a marked decline from 2022, when there was a 50:50 gender split, and 2021, when women made up 45% of the new partners.

Neither firm responded immediately to requests by GLP to comment on the gender breakdowns. Law firms, however, generally warn against taking individual promotion rounds in isolation, and instead point to broader trends.

While CMS does not publish numeric diversity targets, its diversity and inclusion charter commits it to ‘continuously improving all aspects pertaining to diversity and inclusion’.

This includes ‘maintaining equitable gender representation’ among leadership positions; ‘achieving women’s representation, appointed as partners pro rata to the number of female members’ and ‘training members to promote diversity and inclusion across the organisation, including in order to rule out any unconscious bias’.

Last year, Addleshaws reported that it had already met three of eight gender diversity targets it had set for 2023: that 26% of UK equity partners, 40% of voting board members and 50% of business services heads are women.

Its 2023 target for the partnership is for 32% to be women, a proportion that had reached 30% last year.

At CMS, the bumper promotion round spanned 28 cities across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Some 39 new partners are spread across the firm’s network of continental European offices – the same as last year – while the UK tally is up by one to 16, of whom seven are women, 44% of the tally.

There were five promotions in South America and four in South Africa, while one lawyer in the Middle East was promoted.

CMS UK senior partner Penelope Warne said: “The promotions extend across a broad range of countries as well as practice and sector groups, reflecting the industries and geographies in which our clients are based and operate. It’s also a reflection of the investment and support the firm provides to its people enabling them to thrive and reach their full potential.”   

The Addleshaws promotions come amid a concerted growth push at the firm, which has seen it swell its partner ranks by almost 30 to 369 over the past year.

Like last year, the latest cohort includes lawyers from each of Addleshaws' four divisions – corporate and commercial, finance and projects, litigation and real estate – that advise across the firm’s core sectors of energy and utilities, financial services, healthcare, real estate, retail & consumer and transport.

The firm once again focused its promotions on its home turf, with 16 of those promoted based in the UK, including nine in London, four in Manchester and three in Leeds. Paris welcomed two new partners with the promotions rounded out by two promotions in the Singapore office. 

Senior partner, Charles Penney, said: "Our footprint continues to grow with the opening of our four new European offices last year and another soon to open this year in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We continue to pursue recruitment very actively, but as important to us as part of our growth strategy is providing opportunities to our home-grown talent.

"We look forward to working with our new partners to grow our business and to continue their development as future leaders of our firm."

The full list of promoted partners

CMS

Austria - Vienna   
Arno Zimmermann, Corporate/M&A, Litigation & Arbitration   
Hans Lederer, Intellectual Property, Technology, Media & Telecoms, Commercial   
Klaus PateterTechnology, Media & Telecoms, Commercial, Start-ups  

Belgium (EU Law Office) - Brussels   
Siobhan Kahmann, Competition & Trade  

Bosnia & Herzegovina - Sarajevo   
Sanja Voloder, Corporate/M&A, Technology, Media & Telecoms  

Bulgaria - Sofia   
Antonia Kehayova, Dispute Resolution, Real Estate & Construction, Public Procurement, Intellectual Property, Insurance

Colombia - Bogotá   
Leopoldo Olavarría, Corporate/M&A, Energy & Climate Change, Commercial  

France - Paris   
Geoffrey Levesque, Banking & Finance      
Virginie Corbet-Picard, Corporate/M&A, Private Equity    
Benoît Gomel, Corporate/M&A, Private Equity    
Maïté Ollivier, Employment & Pensions     
William Hamon, Tax        
Sarah Dardour-Attali, Tax

Germany  
Cologne   
Thomas Maur, Banking, Finance & Insurance 

Frankfurt   
Dr. Florian Plagemann, Corporate/M&A

Munich   
Dr. Benedikt Forschner, Employment 

Düsseldorf      
Dr. Martin Friedberg, Tax    

Italy  
Rome   
Giacomo Cavasola, Corporate/M&A       
Marco Iannacci, Dispute Resolution – Public Law    
Matia Campo, Technology, Media & Telecoms, Intellectual Property  

Milan   
Luca Vincenzi, Tax 

Luxembourg   
Andreea Antonescu, Corporate/M&A     
Hugo Arellano, Employment

Netherlands - Amsterdam   
Oskar van de Weijer, Litigation & Insurance     
Jasper Kampherbeek, Real Estate – Civil Law Notaries    
Jan Peter IJspeert, Real Estate & Construction  

Norway - Oslo   
Henrik NordlingAntitrust, Competition & Trade    
Alf Amund Gulsvik, Public Procurement  

Oman - Muscat   
Charles Dolphin, Energy & Infrastructure

Peru - Lima   
Alessandra Cocchella, Dispute Resolution      
Jesús Abanto, Energy & Climate Change     
Nestor Shimabukuro, Public Procurement, Infrastructure & Projects       
Yessica Manzur, Tax    

Poland - Warsaw   
Alicja Zalewska-Orabona, Intellectual Property, Trade Marks  

Portugal - Lisbon    
Tiago Valente de Oliveira, Corporate/M&A       
Bernardo Cunha Ferreira, Energy & Climate Change     
Tiago Machado Graça, Lusophone Africa  

Romania - Bucharest   
Mihai Jiganie-Serban, Dispute Resolution, White Collar Crime        
    
Serbia - Belgrade   
Nenad Kovačević, Dispute Resolution, Corporate/ M&A, Competition & EU       
Marija Marošan, Real Estate, Energy & Climate Change, Renewables       

Spain - Madrid   
Irene Miró, Corporate/M&A, Energy & Climate Change       
Ignacio Cerrato, Corporate/M&A, Private Equity, Energy & Climate Change 

Barcelona    
Pedro Ferreras, Corporate/M&A, Technology, Media & Telecoms, Start-ups, Automotive

South Africa - Johannesburg   
Andre van den Berg, Banking & Finance, Hotels & Leisure, Real Estate, Technology, Media & Telecoms    
Bridgett Majola, Banking & Finance, Project Finance/Energy & Infrastructure    
Kabelo Dlothi, Corporate/M&A, Private Equity Energy & Climate Change    
Lucinda Hixman, Employment & Labour  

Switzerland - Zurich   
Dr. Simone Brauchbar Birkhäuser, Intellectual Property & Consumer Products    
Dr. Matthias Kuert, Banking & Finance

United Kingdom London    
Sam Oustayiannis, Commercial, Technology & Media    
Daniel Weston, Corporate, Private Equity     
Jamie Burgess, Corporate, Private Equity     
Amanda Chamming’s, Pensions       
Natalie Mee, Pensions       
Matthew Brown, Energy & Infrastructure     
Sarah Brook, Financial Services      
Tom Callaby, Financial Services      
Kelly Saliger, Intellectual Property, Trade Marks    
Sara Keag, Real Estate Disputes      
Irfaan Khaliq, Real Estate Transactions     
Scott Curtis, Real Estate Transactions     
Philip Reid, Corporate, Tax  

Aberdeen   
Fiona Henderson, Finance  

Glasgow   
David Dennis, Commercial, Technology & Media    
Davinia Cowden, Energy & Infrastructure  

Addleshaw Goddard

Francois Alambret – Employment (Paris)

Oliver Broomfield – Corporate (London)

Sam Cary – Construction (London)

Sylvie Chandesris – Transactional Real Estate (Paris)

Nikhil Chary – Corporate (London)

Neeta Chityal – Global Investigations (London)

Marcus Collins – Corporate (Singapore)

Michael Corbett – Transactional Real Estate (Manchester)

Mark Crane – Competition (Manchester)

Dan Glowacz – Transactional Real Estate (Leeds)

Rebecca Hickman – Financial Regulation (London)

Alex Hogarth – Commercial Disputes (London)

Charles Liu – Corporate (Singapore)

Matt Lucas – Transactional Real Estate (London)

Andrew Moore – Employment (Manchester)

James Mort – Commercial (Leeds)

Louise Pritchard – Corporate (London)

Emma Sadler – Restructuring (Leeds)

Greg Simms – Real Estate Disputes (London)

Nadine Waters – Commercial (Manchester)