CMS has promoted 56 partners in its latest promotions round, including 22 across the UK.

The latest round includes 27 women, 48% of the total – its highest proportion to date. Women made up 41% of last year's 54-strong round and 33% of 2023's record cohort of 65. 

The firm’s latest promotions span 28 cities across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

Like last year, some 30 new partners are spread across the firm’s network of continental European offices, including three in Sweden, where the firm joined forces with 150-lawyer firm Wistrand in late 2023 in a move that handed it offices in Stockholm and Gothenburg. 

Meantime, the UK partner tally was up by 12 from last year to 22. Thirteen got the nod in London, including six in the corporate practice that was the focus of a redundancy round in 2023 amid a sharp downturn in global deal markets. 

The corporate practice welcomed private equity M&A duo Ben Booker-Moore and Stephen Kilshaw alongside lawyers specialising in energy and infrastructure M&A, financial services M&A, tax and funds, with the rest of the London promotions spread across capital markets, restructuring, financial services, infrastructure and energy disputes and insurance. 

Elsewhere there were three promotions in the Middle East, where corporate lawyers Ali Al Juma and Helen Dean were welcomed in Oman and Jay Randhawa got the nod in the infrastructure and energy disputes team in Riyadh. 

This time round there were no promotions in Latin America or Asia, where last month CMS officially merged with its Hong Kong alliance firm Lau Horton & Wise, creating a combined practice with more than 40 lawyers. 

Like last year the firm's corporate and corporate/M&A saw the most promotions, with 16 this time round, while there were seven promotions in real estate and five in the tax team. There were also three promotions in the infrastructure and energy disputes team, with the rest of the appointments spread across diverse practice areas including pensions, dispute resolution, insurance, financial services regulatory, public law, life sciences and banking and finance, among others. 

“We’re delighted to welcome another strong cohort of lawyers to the partnership who demonstrate the depth and breadth of talent across the firm’s practice areas and geographies," said Charles Currier, senior partner for CMS UK. 

"Our new partners have all shown a commitment to delivering excellence for our clients and they embody core CMS values of collaboration and innovation. We look forward to seeing their practices continue to develop and thrive,” he added.  

The round includes promotions that take effect between 2 May 2024 and 1 April 2025.

It follows CMS reporting last August that it grew revenue 5% in 2023 to €1.96bn off the back of increased corporate, disputes, real estate and tax work. The firm does not disclose its profits or profit per equity partner, though Legal Business reported PEP was down 4% on the previous year’s estimated £771k to £741.6k. 

A full list of the promotions can be found here.