Sidley Austin has elevated 29 lawyers to its partnership in its latest promotions round in the US and Europe, a decline from last year’s intake.
Some 38 lawyers made the grade at the end of 2024, which had been its largest combined class to date with 27 lawyers also promoted to counsel. Sidley has elevated 15 to counsel in this latest round.
Women make up just under half of this year’s partner class, roughly in line with last year’s cohort. All promotions will take effect from 1 January.
Yvette Ostolaza, chair of Sidley’s management committee, said: “This is an exceptional group of lawyers that have been elected to partner and promoted to counsel. Each of them has demonstrated the attributes that are necessary to practice at the highest levels of our profession. Whether representing clients in the courtroom, leading significant transactions or advising them in the boardroom, each of them have earned the trust and respect of our partnership and our valued clients.”
The firm’s global finance practice saw the most partner promotions with five, followed by four each in its commercial litigation and disputes practice and private equity group. The restructuring team saw three promotions, while M&A and tax saw two apiece. The rest of the promotions were spread out across nine practices, including white collar defence and investigations, insurance and antitrust.
As with last year, the bulk of promotions were based in the US. New York saw the most promotions with nine, followed by six in Chicago and four in Washington DC. London followed with three, including private equity lawyer Florian Kamp, commercial disputes specialist Jonathan Lafferty and global finance lawyer Azeem Sulemanji.
The remainder of the promotions were spread across its offices in Century City (two), Dallas (one), Los Angeles (two), Munich (one) and San Francisco (one).
Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington saw three counsel promotions each, with two in New York and one each in Dallas, Geneva, London and Miami.
Brian Fahrney, chair of Sidley’s executive committee, said: “This newly promoted class of highly regarded partners and counsel indicates our sustained growth as an elite firm. We continue to foster the growth of talented lawyers who meet the needs of their clients day in and day out.”
The full list of partner promotions are as follows:
Antitrust and competition
Lauren Freeman, San Francisco
Banking, payments and fintech
Stanley Boris, Washington DC
Commercial litigation and disputes
Abigail Molitor, Chicago
Jonathan Lafferty, London
Alexandria Ruiz, Los Angeles
Jon Muenz, New York
Environmental, health and safety
Caleb Bowers, Los Angeles
Global arbitration, trade and advocacy
Aaron Applebaum, Washington DC
Global finance
Shayona Schiely, Century City
Azeem Sulemanji, London
Luke Maiman, New York
Michael Sweeney, New York
Alena Thomas, New York
Insurance
John White, Chicago
M&A
Anika Hermann Bargfrede, Chicago
Rachel Fridhandler, New York
Private equity
Florian Kamp, London
Thomas Komanek, Munich
MK (Mee Kyung) Han, New York
Emily Hunter, New York
Restructuring
Jeri Leigh Miller, Dallas
Patrick Venter, New York
Ameneh Bordi, Washington DC
SEC and corporate governance
Katie LaVoy, Chicago
Securities and shareholder litigation
Caroline Wong, Chicago
Securities enforcement and regulatory
Erin Kauffman, Washington DC
Tax
Jonathan Westreich, Century City
Dustin Anderson, New York
White collar defence and investigations
Takayuki Ono, Chicago
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