Linklaters has promoted 30 lawyers to the partnership with the proportion of female appointees slipping below its 30% gender balance target.

The total tally (see below) represents a slight fall from 2019’s figure of 33 promotions with a much heavier concentration in London — up from 33% to 47% — and a 50% reduction in Asia appointments, down from eight to four.

Eight women lawyers were promoted to the partnership this year, down from 11 in 2019, although there was a clean sweep of female appointees to the competition team: Antonia Sherman (Washington DC), Isabel Rooms (Belgium) and London’s Anna Mitchell. 

Last year, the gender balance was 33% — just above Linklaters’ 30% target. This year the proportion of female lawyers across the firm’s offices has fallen to 27%, although London’s tally of five appointments put the UK average at 36%.

Charlie Jacobs said: “Whilst the impact of Covid-19 on the global economy is something which cannot be ignored, we have always taken a long-term view at Linklaters in relation to promoting talent. 

“We are confident that these elections are testament to both the Linklaters’ resilience as well as our strategy of continuing to attract, retain and invest in talent across our global network.”

The London tally of 14 appointments was up from 11 in 2019 and runs counter to fears over the impact of Brexit on legal business in the UK.

The ten appointments across continental Europe were spread across Germany (3), Belgium (3), France, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden.

The fall in Asia appointments comes after a difficult year for the firm’s core Hong Kong market, which was in the grips of the pro-democracy demonstrations for much of the year.

Three of the successful candidates are based in Hong Kong and are all capital markets specialists:  Bernard Chain, Hanwen Yu and Lipton Li. The other was Sutthipong Koohasaneh, a member of the Bangkok corporate team.

The finance division accounted for the most appointments (14), followed closely by corporate (13) with dispute resolution accounting for three new partners.

Linklaters’ latest UK pay gap figures, published in December, recorded the median earnings gap for all UK staff including partners edging up to 39.1% in favour of men from 37% with firm.

The firm highlighted initiatives designed to improve the gender balance among its senior ranks, including a new parental leave policy.

On Wednesday, fellow global top 20 firm CMS appointed 41 partners with the percentage of women slipping from 47% to 41%.

US

Andrew Compton, Energy & Infrastructure (Finance), New York

Antonia Sherman, Competition/Antitrust, Washington

UK

Anna Mitchell, Competition/Antitrust, London

Cara Hegarty, Employment & Incentives, London

George Yiend, Mainstream Corporate, London

Lorna Tennent, Mainstream Corporate, London

Sarah Flaherty, Mainstream Corporate, London

Ben Packer, Dispute Resolution, London

Liam Robinson, Banking, London

Philip Gore, Banking, London

Doug Shaw, Capital Markets, London

Elisabeth Johnson, Capital Markets, London

Neil Pallender, Capital Markets, London

Yaroslav Alekseyev, Capital Markets, London

Alaistair Holt, Financial Regulation, London

Andrew Penfold, Energy & Infrastructure, London

Continental Europe

Isabel Rooms, Competition/Antitrust, Belgium

Filip Lecoutre, Mainstream Corporate, Belgium

Guilluame Couneson, TMT/IP, Belgium

Andreas Müller, Mainstream Corporate, Frankfurt

Christian Hundeshagen, Tax, Frankfurt

Julia Grothaus, Dispute Resolution, Frankfurt

Martin Mager, Investment Funds, Luxembourg

Loris Bovo, Dispute Resolution, Milan

Darko Adamovic, Energy & Infrastructure, Paris

Rasmus Kindlund, Mainstream Corporate, Stockholm

Asia

Sutthipong Koohasaneh, Corporate, Bangkok

Bernard Chain, Capital Markets, Hong Kong

Hanwen Yu, Capital Markets (EDM), Hong Kong

Lipton Li, Capital Markets (EDM), Hong Kong