Squire Patton Boggs (SPB) has promoted 20 lawyers to the partnership as well as making two senior lateral hires in the UK.
Alongside the internal appointments – up from 17 last year – the firm has hired as partners Eversheds Sutherland’s former Leeds head of pensions, Gemma Hanley, and Birmingham-based IP specialist Matthew Harris, who has joined from Gowling WLG, where he was a principal associate.
The new internal recruits to the partnership reflect a broad spread of capabilities, with notable growth in the corporate, financial services and regulatory teams. Of the 20, eight are women, double last year’s figure of four.
London saw the largest share of promotions with five, followed by Cleveland and Washington DC, which recorded three promotions each. The New York office celebrated two promotions while seven offices saw one promotion each: Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Miami and Phoenix in the US, Leeds and Birmingham in the UK, and Tokyo.
Congratulating the new intake, Mark Ruehlmann, the firm’s chair and global CEO, said the new partners had “demonstrated their practice expertise and legal skills”, adding: “Their achievements reflect the diverse reservoir of talent across our global firm and the strength of our future.”
The corporate team led the round with five promotions, followed by financial services with three, while environmental, health and safety, intellectual property and technology, and litigation each welcomed two new partners.
The investigations and white-collar crime and international trade and foreign investment teams each welcomed one new partner, reflecting a more volatile global trading climate, as did the mainstream restructuring and insolvency, real estate, public and infrastructure finance and pensions teams.
The firm said that over the past year it had made senior hires across most of its practices. In financial services alone, it said it had added more than 20 partners as part of a strategic build-out in private credit, structured finance, debt finance, regulatory and fund formation, and capital markets.
Significant hires included Trish O’Donnell and Nathan Menon, who joined from Reed Smith in September 2025 in New York and London, respectively. In July, the firm added Ranajoy Basu in London from legacy McDermott Will & Emery as global head of structured finance within the financial services practice. In April, Gabriel Yomi Dabiri joined the New York office from Polsinelli as global head of private capital and direct lending.
Meanwhile, Hanley’s arrival in the Leeds office marks a return to the firm for the pensions specialist, as she previously spent almost 10 years there. Matthew Giles, SPB’s head of pensions, noted: “We’ve kept in touch over the years, and many of our colleagues have either worked alongside or across the table from Gemma, and we know just how impressive a lawyer she is.”
Harris was described as “a talented and versatile practitioner with a depth of experience acting for both UK and international clients on complex IT and outsourcing projects” by David Elkins, SPB’s global IP practice group leader.
Last September, the firm boosted its regional network with a quartet of partner hires.
The full list of promotions
Laura Aber, New York, Corporate
James Bradshaw, London, Corporate
Luke Burton, Cincinnati, White Collar
Steven Conigliaro, Phoenix, Financial Services
Jeremy Dutra, Washington, International Trade & Foreign Investment
Matt Lappin, London, Corporate
John Lazzaretti, Cleveland, Environmental, Safety & Health
Lianne Mantione, Cleveland, Environmental, Safety & Health
Maura McIntyre, Cleveland, Restructuring & Insolvency
David Myers, Leeds, Real Estate
Claire O’Connor, Birmingham, Corporate
James Pearson, London, Intellectual Property & Technology
Meghan Quinn, Washington, Litigation
Erin Tallent, Los Angeles, Litigation
Lauren Trialonas, New York, Public & Infrastructure Finance
Takujiro Urabe, Tokyo, Corporate
Alexander Warents, Miami, Financial Services
Felix Weston, London, Pensions
Alex Wolcott, Washington, Intellectual Property & Technology
Andrea Zemenides, London, Financial Services
The following individuals have been made principals:
Shennan Harris, Columbus, Labour & Employment
Jessica Richards, Columbus, Corporate
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