Paul Weiss has promoted 34 to partners in its latest promotions round, the first for the firm since it introduced a non-equity tier to its partnership.  

The round is almost triple the size of the 12-strong cohort the firm made up to partner last January. 

In line with standard practice, Paul Weiss did not say how many of the new class would receive the non-equity designation, which the firm said it would bring in earlier this year to prevent associates moving to rivals where they could get the partner title sooner.

Most of the promotions – 26 – went to lawyers in Paul Weiss’s New York headquarters, reflecting the concentration of its team in the city, where around 800 of its roughly 1,000 lawyers are based. Elsewhere in the US, the firm made up three partners in Washington DC, two in Wilmington and one apiece in Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

The final promotion was in London, where the firm was left with just three partners in summer 2023 but has since been rapidly picking off partners from rivals – mostly Kirkland & Ellis – to build a top-tier practice around private equity. 

Toby Karenowski, who joined from Kirkland in July, was promoted in the investment funds group of the corporate department, bringing the firm’s partner count in London to 35, according to its website.  

The firm’s corporate department received 16 promotions overall, including nine in the M&A group, four in the finance group and one each in the investment funds, capital markets and IP and tech transactions groups. There were also 12 promotions in the litigation department, with the rest spread across real estate, executive compensation, professional responsibility, tax and personal representation. 

The round included 15 women, or 44% of the total – roughly in line with the previous year, which was split evenly between men and women, and an increase on 2022, when the round was made up of eight men and three women. 

“We are delighted to welcome this exceptional group of lawyers to our partnership,” said Brad Karp, chairman of the firm. “These promotions are a testament to their hard work, expertise and the high standards they uphold, and we look forward to their continued contributions to our firm’s success.”

Paul Weiss is among a handful of highly profitable US firms that have introduced a non-equity partner tier over the past year in a bid to retain talent in a hyper-competitive market, including Cravath Swaine & Moore and WilmerHale. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton also said in October it would create a new non-equity tier, leaving the ever-diminishing group of elite firms that are still wedded to a pure equity model. 

Paul Weiss also introduced a so-called “black box” compensation system earlier this year, according to Law.com, making partner compensation confidential and thereby minimising tension within the partnership as it invests in recruiting expensive rainmakers from competitors. 

Last week, Paul Weiss became the latest of a string of US firms to initiate plans to end their on-the-ground presence in mainland China.