UK Magic Circle firm Linklaters has elevated 34 lawyers to partner in its latest promotions round, 14 of them women, ensuring the firm met its annual target for at least 40% of promoted partners to be female for a fifth consecutive year.

The number of promotions is an increase on last year’s cohort, when 27 were elevated to the partnership, including 11 women. But it is smaller than the 2023 round, which saw 41 lawyers get the nod, including 17 women.

The firm’s corporate practice saw the most promotions this year with eight, followed by four apiece in its litigation, arbitration and investigations and energy and infrastructure practices. There were also three promotions each in the banking and capital markets teams, and two each in the financial regulation and antitrust and foreign investment practices. The rest were spread across environmental, investment funds, IP, Latin America corporate finance, legal and risk, pensions, real estate and tax. 

The UK dominated the round, with 16 made up in London including banking duo Bobby Butcher and Victoria Wright and capital markets specialists Andrew Chaplin and Emma Crawford. Mainland Europe was the second largest region, with 11 promotions spread across the firm’s Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Düsseldorf and Luxembourg offices. Three lawyers made the cut in the Middle East – corporate lawyer Patrick Sutton-Mattocks in Dubai and energy and infrastructure duo Sarah Hudson and Jack Allen Fitt in Abu Dhabi. 

The round was completed with four promotions in the US, including three in New York, where since the start of last year Linklaters has hired top flight teams across finance, M&A and litigation from US rivals. There was also a promotion in Washington DC, where Emilio Minvielle got the nod in the Latin America corporate finance team. 

The round was just short of the firm’s target for at least 15% of promoted partners in the UK and US to be from under-represented minority ethnic groups, with the proportion at 14% this time according to a source with knowledge of the matter.  

Meantime, 48 lawyers were made up to counsel, including 21 in London. In total, the counsel promotions were spread across 12 countries and 13 practice areas. There was also four counsel promotions at Linklaters’ Chinese joint operation firm Zhao Sheng Law Firm. All promotions come into effect on 1 May. 

Aedamar Comiskey, senior partner and chair at Linklaters, said: “I am delighted to welcome this impressive group to our partnership. I’ve seen first-hand their big ambitions and entrepreneurial mindset and look forward to seeing what they’ll achieve for our global clients and our firm. Congratulations also go to our newly promoted counsel on hitting this terrific milestone.”

Linklaters’ latest promotions follows Magic Circle rival Slaughter and May’s round earlier this week, where six were made up to partner.

To see the full list of Linklaters’ partner and counsel promotions, click here.