Latham & Watkins has promoted 23 counsel to its partnership, marking a step up on last year’s 17-strong cohort. 

The latest round follows the Los Angeles giant, the second largest law firm in the world by revenue, promoting a record-tying 44 associates to partner in January.

Six women were included in the latest round, or 26% of the total – a step down on last year when seven of the 17 counsel to make the cut were women (41%). 

Like last year most of the promotions went to lawyers based in the firm’s US offices. Washington DC and New York gained the most new partners, with six and five respectively, while three were promoted in Los Angeles. Chicago welcomed two and in San Francisco Betty Pang’s healthcare regulatory practice saw her make the cut in the healthcare and life sciences team. 

London gained 10 new partners in Latham’s associate promotions round earlier this year but didn’t feature in the latest round. Instead, a counsel apiece was made up in Madrid, Milan and Munich, where Ulf Kieker’s promotion in the transactional tax practice follows the firm boosting its real estate transaction capabilities in Germany with the hire of partner Carsten Loll from Linklaters last year. 

The rest of the promotions went to lawyers in Asia – Owain Davies was made up in the project development and finance team in Singapore and Michael Hardy and See Wah Wong were welcomed in Hong Kong in the structured finance and capital markets teams respectively. 

In terms of practice area, the firm’s environment, land and resources team welcomed the most new partners – four – while the capital markets and banking teams each saw three promotions and the complex commercial litigation and private equity practices two apiece.

Nine more practice areas – project development & finance, structured finance, transactional tax, securities litigation & professional liability, white collar defence & investigations, intellectual property litigation, healthcare & life sciences, connectivity, privacy & information and antitrust & competition – saw one lawyer make the cut. 

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Rich Trobman, chair and managing partner, said:“We are pleased to congratulate our newest partners and celebrate their collective achievements on behalf of our clients and the firm. All are dedicated, talented, and highly respected team players who deliver exceptional client service and will ensure our continued growth,” said Rich Trobman, Chair and Managing Partner of Latham & Watkins.

The promotions are effective 1 March 2023. 

Having featured strongly in Latham’s last two promotions rounds, a notable absence this time was the firm's mergers and acquisitions team. 

Latham’s M&A practice had a standout 2021, working on more than 900 deals worth $604.3bn as global M&A activity reached a record-breaking $5.9trn. 

The effort earned the firm second place behind Sullivan & Cromwell in Refinitiv’s global M&A legal advisor rankings by deal value for the year and contributed to it becoming the first law firm to break the $5bn revenue threshold as its turnover leaped 26.7% in 2021 to reach a whopping $5.49bn.

The firm dropped to fifth place on the ranking last year against the background of a slowing global M&A market, working on deals worth $332bn, including US private equity firm Energy Capital Partners' £1.3bn acquisition of UK waste management business Biffa. 

The full list of new partners: 

Owain Davies (Singapore): Project Development & Finance Practice 

Michael Hardy (Hong Kong): Structured Finance Practice 

See Wah Wong (Hong Kong): Capital Markets Practice 

José María Alonso (Madrid): Environment, Land & Resources Practice 

Ulf Kieker (Munich): Transactional Tax Practice 

Cesare Milani (Milan): Environment, Land & Resources Practice 

John Barber (Chicago): Securities Litigation & Professional Liability Practice 

Dean Baxtresser (Washington, D.C.): White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice 

Charles Cassidy (Washington, D.C.): Capital Markets Practice 

Michael David (Washington, D.C.): Intellectual Property Litigation Practice 

Sarah Gragert (Washington, D.C.): Complex Commercial Litigation Practice 

Ryan LaFevers (Chicago): Banking Practice 

Joshua Marnitz (Los Angeles and Houston): Environment, Land & Resources Practice 

Nima Mohebbi (Los Angeles): Complex Commercial Litigation Practice 

Betty Pang (San Francisco): Healthcare & Life Sciences Practice 

Edmond Parhami (New York): Private Equity Practice 

Elizabeth Park (Washington, D.C.): Connectivity, Privacy & Information Practice 

Aron Potash (Los Angeles): Environment, Land & Resources Practice 

Anna Rathbun (Washington, D.C.): Antitrust & Competition Practice 

Brian Rock (New York) is a member of the Banking Practice 

Michael Saliba (New York): Capital Markets Practice 

Michael Vardanian (New York): Private Equity Practice 

Ipek Seniz Yakut (New York): Banking Practice