New York dominates as Debevoise & Plimpton promotes eight to partnership

Women account for 38% of the promotions, just under the firm’s 40% long-term average

Debevoise & Plimpton has promoted eight lawyers to its global partnership, three of whom are women.

The overall promotion round is one less than made the cut in 2021, though three women were also promoted to partnership last year. This year’s cohort include New York-based Laura Sinisterra, Caroline Swett and Katherine Durnan Taylor. The firm said taking into account this year’s female partner promotions, women have made up 40% of all partner promotions since 2008. In percentage terms, women made up 38% of promotions this year and 33% last year.

In total, six of the eight promoted partners are based in New York, with a promotion each in London and Hong Kong. That was broadly in line with last year’s group, where seven of the nine were New York-based, with a promotion each in London and Washington DC.

Sinisterra has been an associate with the firm since 2014, joining from Bogota-based firm Gómez-Pinzón Zuleta. She is a member of the firm’s international dispute resolution group, with her practice focusing on global arbitration and litigation, notably on disputes arising in Latin America.

Swett has been with the firm for almost a decade, becoming counsel last summer. She is a member of the financial institutions and banking groups and her practice focuses on a range of regulatory, supervisory, enforcement and financial transaction matters.

Durnan Taylor, meantime, has been an associate since joining the firm’s M&A group in October 2014. Her practice focuses on advising public and private companies and private equity firms on a range of deals and corporate matters.

The rest of this year's cohort include London-based M&A lawyer Dominic Blaxill, New York-based finance lawyers Andrew Jamieson and Brett Novick, New York capital markets lawyer Benjamin Pederson and Hong Kong-based investment management specialist Shawn Yang.

Back in January the firm announced 13 new counsel and international counsel, with three promotions in London, one in Washington and nine in New York (with one of those also working in the firm’s Paris office). The cohort included just two women: investment management lawyers Bari Steinberg in New York and Selena Chisholm in London.

Earlier this month, New York peer Shearman & Sterling promoted 12 to partner, with nine of the cohort based in the US and a third of the total women – down from 42% in 2021.

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