Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) has announced a 56-strong 2025 partner promotions class, an increase on last year’s total of 49 and a sharp rise from 2023’s class of 36 partners. 

However, the proportion of women promoted fell to 35% (20 of 56), breaking a five-year run of promotions in which women had accounted for more than 40% of the firm’s partner promotions.

It is the first round overseen by Peter Scott and Jeff Cody after their appointments as global CEOs of the firm were confirmed in September. 

Jeff Cody, Norton Rose Fulbright’s co-global and US managing partner, said: “Growing the partnership is a focus of our firm, and one of the best ways to do that is to promote our own highly qualified and talented rising stars.”

The promotions come following an increase in the firm’s global revenue of 8.3% in 2023 to $2.26bn while profits per equity partner rose by 32.7% in 2023 to $1.4m, fuelled by a reduction in its equity tier of around 140 lawyers. 

Senior partner departures included a three-partner energy team which quit the Paris office in July to set up an office for Bracewell. However, these were offset by 40 lateral partner hires, including that of a four-partner investigations team secured in the US from BCLP.

While the global span of this year’s promotions was smaller compared to last year, spanning 18 of the firm’s 54 offices, as compared to 22 from 53 in 2024, North America was, once again, the clear winner, with thirty new partners promoted, 22 of them in the US, and 18 in Canada. 

Some 11 partners were promoted in London, an increase of four from 2024’s seven-strong haul and the highest tally of London promotions since the Covid-19 pandemic.   

Two lawyers were promoted in Asia – one in Hong Kong and another in Singapore – while two were promoted in Australia, in Sydney and Melbourne. Just one lawyer was promoted in Europe, in Paris, and there were no promotions in the Middle East. 

Thirteen practice areas saw promotions, compared to ten in 2024 and eight in 2023.  Dispute resolution topped the partner promotions list for the second year running with 18 lawyers, two more than last year’s sixteen-partner haul. 

Corporate, M&A and securities saw twelve promotions, equal to 2024’s round, while banking and finance had nine lawyers promoted. There were three promotions in public finance, while antitrust, cybersecurity and data privacy projects had two partners each, with solitary promotions in IP, healthcare, real estate, restructuring and insolvency, and tax. 
 

List of Partners
Antitrust and competition
Abraham Chang, Houston
Jamie Cooke, London

Banking and Finance
Ben Carrozzi, London *
James Kent, London
Charlotte Hickman, London
Jessica Melville, London
Joe Mooney, Calgary
Thomas Nichols, Montreal
Aditya Rebbapragada, Singapore
Alexandra Somerset, London
Alvin Wong, Hong Kong *

Corporate, M&A and securities
Simon Baker, London
Ajit Dhillon, Vancouver
Evan Hardee, Dallas
James Lacey, New York
Rachel Lesmerises, Montreal
Mark Maurice, London
Pier-Olivier Poisson, Montreal
Lauren Salloway, Toronto
Rohan Sridhar, Melbourne
Sean Wallace, Calgary
Vanessa Ward, Sydney
Amelia Zhang, Houston

Cybersecurity and data privacy
Ji Won Kim, Los Angeles
Travis Walker, Toronto

Employment
Jesika Silva Blanco, Houston

Joseph Cohen-Lyons, Toronto
Paul Macchione, Toronto

Healthcare regulatory, policy and litigation
Jeff Wurzburg, San Antonio

Intellectual property
Jeremy Albright, Austin

Litigation and disputes
Erika Anschuetz, Toronto
Erin Brown, Ottawa
Kate Ergenbright, Houston
Mike George, London
Alicia Grant, San Antonio
Veronica Portillo Kendrick, Dallas
Ashley Kuempel, Austin
Nathan Lapper, Vancouver
Anthony Lauriello, New York
Joey Piorkowski, Dallas
Geoff Poelman, Calgary
Marc Robert, Paris
Brad Rutledge, Houston
Jean-Simon Schoenholz, Ottawa
Sean Topping, New York
Aimee Vidaurri, San Antonio
Eva Yang, Los Angeles
Noah Zucker, Montreal

Projects
Deanne Barrow, San Francisco
Matt Hacking, London

Public finance
Stepan Haytayan, Los Angeles
Matt Lee, Austin
Matt McCabe, Dallas

Real estate
Liam Oster, Vancouver

Restructuring
Gemma Long, London

Tax
Nikki Hildebrand, Vancouver