Five-partner promotions round for Hausfeld celebrates female legal talent

Dispute boutique’s largest partner class since 2019 includes lawyer involved in mammoth Trucks Cartel litigation

Samantha Derksen(l) and Jane Shin Credit: Hausfeld

Global disputes boutique Hausfeld has promoted five lawyers to its partnership in its 2025 round, four of them women.

The cohort represents an increase of two on 2024’s all-male partnership promotions round, while only one woman was promoted in the three-partner class of 2023, the firm having maintained gender parity in 2022 and 2021.

It represents the firm’s most significant partnership class since 2019, when five partners were also elected, while the firm as a whole is now more gender diverse, with 47% female lawyers and 35% female partners.

Amandine Gueret was the only London-based promotion. Samantha Derksen, Jane Shin and Mary Sameera Van Houten Harper were made up in Washington DC, while Renner Walker was promoted in New York for his natural resources and environmental litigation, antitrust, cybersecurity and commercial disputes practice.

Gueret, dual-qualified in London and Paris, works as a competition litigator, principally before the Competition Appeal Tribunal, where she has been involved in the mammoth Trucks Cartel litigation and the Power Cables dispute.

Derksen – who has worked with Gueret in the London office – was promoted for her antitrust work in the US and a broad base of consumer, environmental and climate change cases in Europe, the UK and America.

Shin’s practice spans antitrust, technology, commercial litigation claims and consumer protection cases, while Van Houten Harper works in human rights, antitrust and consumer protection.

The promotions follow a series of London-based lateral hires during the second half of 2024, including Joanna Christoforou from Morgan Lewis, Greg Lascelles from Covington & Burling and Daniel Hunt from Freshfields, while in Germany René Galle joined from A&O Shearman

The hires follow John McElroy’s summer exit for Fieldfisher to pursue his banking litigation practice and Duran Ross’s move to Lewis Silkin in April. Meantime competition partner Lucy Rigby was elected as an MP in July and last month was appointed Solicitor General. 

Hausfeld global co-chair, Anthony Maton, welcomed the new partners, saying their “diverse skills and perspectives will play a vital role in shaping the firm’s future”. 

His US counterpart, Brian Ratner, added: “We are thrilled to congratulate our new partners – Mary, Renner, Samantha, Jane and Amandine – on this well-earned achievement, which reflects their dedication, hard work and commitment to excellence.”

The firm also promoted four lawyers to counsel, including two in Germany, where competition lawyers Otis Gröne and Christopher Unself got the nod in Dusseldorf and Berlin respectively. New York’s Kartik Sameer Madiraju, a commercial and public interest litigator, was also elevated, as was Charles Laporte-Bisquit in London for his cartel-focused practice. 

Hausfeld also refreshed its London leadership last July, and named Ann-Christin Richter as Germany managing partner in November.  

Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]

Top