Simpson Thacher appoints 59 to partnership in record promotions round

New York-headquartered commercial law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has elevated a record 59 lawyers to its partnership in its latest promotions round.

This year’s cohort is up from 44 last year, with women making up 47% of the class, broadly in line with 2024 when 48% made the grade. The promotions will take effect from 1 January.

New York accounted for the majority of new partners (39), either solely or splitting time across other locations, followed by Washington DC (seven, including exempt organisations lawyer Maura Whelan, who will also spend time in New York). London saw five partners appointed, with three in Houston and Palo Alto, two in Hong Kong and Los Angeles, and single-digit promotions in São Paulo, Luxembourg and Beijing.

The firm’s private funds and capital markets groups saw the most promotions by practice areas (17 and 10, respectively). M&A accounted for eight promotions, mirroring the firm’s core strengths in private capital and capital markets.

Litigation, registered funds and tax saw three partners promoted apiece; energy and infrastructure and national security had two partners apiece, with single appointments across a wide range of other practice areas.

The firm has also been busy in the lateral hiring market over the past year, having hired Nick Appleton in October from Kirkland & Ellis as the latest partner to join the Wall Street firm in London. It also expanded in Boston with an office opening in February, after tapping Willkie Farr for a four-partner registered funds team hire in New York and Washington DC the same month.

Deal activity has included instructions on Qualtrics’ $6.75bn acquisition of a healthcare tech firm and a $6.5bn Blackstone-mandated transaction involving Enverus, opposite Kirkland & Ellis.

The firm was contacted for comment.

The full list of partner promotions is as follows:

Gabriela Astolphi, Energy and Infrastructure (New York/São Paulo)

Demetrius Baefsky, Private Funds (New York)

Patrick Marc Baron, Capital Markets (New York)

Lauren Brazier, Litigation (London)

Nicholas Brown, Private Funds (New York)

Kelsey Byeff, Real Estate (New York)

Daniela Chediak, Private Funds (New York)

Catherine Ciriello, Capital Markets (New York)

Claire DiMario, National Security Regulatory (Washington DC)

Moshe Fink, Liability Management and Special Situations/Restructuring (New York)

Laura Gallo, Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits (New York)

Edward Grais, Tax (New York)

Kirsten Harmon, Capital Markets (New York)

Matt Hart, Capital Markets (Houston)

Jasmine Hay, Tax (New York)

Nathalie Herrand, Private Funds (New York)

Jennifer Ho, National Security Regulatory (Washington DC)

Jason Hwang, Banking and Credit (Houston)

Elliott Im, Private Funds (Los Angeles)

Chaim Carter Kagedan, Private Funds (New York)

Kelly Karapetyan, Litigation (New York)

Makala Kaupalolo, M&A/Financial Institutions (Palo Alto)

Catherine Kidd, Private Funds (New York)

Albi Kocibelli, Private Funds (New York)

Mark Kunzman, M&A (Houston)

Malik Ladhani, M&A (New York)

William LeBas, Asset Management Regulatory and Enforcement (New York)

Paul-Eric Lifrange, Private Funds/Evergreen Private Wealth (Luxembourg)

Jieun Lim, Capital Markets (New York)

Tony Liu, Private Funds (Hong Kong)

Sonia Lopez, Energy and Infrastructure (New York)

May Mansour, Private Funds/Sustainability and ESG (New York)

Brian Mendick, Tax (New York)

Matthew Micklavzina, Registered Funds (Washington DC)

Jie Min, M&A (Beijing)

Lisa Morales, M&A (New York)

Amanda Ng, Private Funds (New York)

Jonathan Pacheco, Registered Funds (Washington DC)

David Park, Private Funds (Palo Alto)

Ignacio Perez, Capital Markets (New York)

Matthew Petrone, Capital Markets (New York)

Mia Pisk, Private Funds (New York)

James Ravden, Private Funds/Secondaries (London)

Nicole Rubin Sanci, Personal Planning (New York)

Christopher Scavone, Fund Transactions (New York)

Alysha Sekhon, Intellectual Property/Privacy and Cybersecurity (New York)

Sherry Shen, M&A (Los Angeles)

Julie Siegel, M&A (Palo Alto)

Ryan Stott, Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits (New York)

Debra Wong Sutter, Registered Funds (Washington DC)

Gary Tashjian, Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits (New York)

Aarthy Thamodaran, Capital Markets (Washington DC)

Claudia Upton, Litigation (London)

Nathan Utterback, Capital Markets/Derivatives (New York)

Laura Wallace, Private Funds/Regulatory (London)

Alex Ward, M&A (London)

Maura Whelan, Exempt Organisations (New York/Washington DC)

Xue Zhang, Private Funds (Hong Kong)

Sam Zhu, Capital Markets (New York)