Weil Gotshal & Manges has promoted 18 to partner in its latest round, its largest cohort since 2021. 

The round follows the firm making up 16 to partner in 2023 and 12 in 2022. One-third of the promotions this time went to women, less than in the last two rounds that saw women make up 38% and 58% of the total respectively. 

The firm also announced it has promoted 43 individuals to counsel. The promotions are effective 1 January, 2025.

The promotions follow some high-profile departures from Weil this year, including co-chairs of the firm’s litigation and restructuring practices who exited for Paul Weiss and Latham & Watkins respectively last week. Going the other way the firm has made a number of lateral hires, including a pair of private equity partners that joined from Latham in the summer to open offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

The latest round was roughly evenly split between Weil’s New York headquarters, where 10 lawyers got the nod, and the firm’s other offices – an increase on the last two years when one quarter of the promotions were in New York. 

Outside of New York, in the US the firm promoted two partners in Dallas and one apiece in Miami, Houston and Washington DC. Two lawyers in London also got the nod – Jenny Choi in the banking and finance group and Andrew Lauder in the structured finance and derivatives group, with the round completed by restructuring lawyer Matthias Eiden’s promotion in Frankfurt. 

The firm’s restructuring practice saw three promotions, as did complex commercial litigation and structured finance and derivatives. Meantime banking and finance had two, while private funds, M&A and private equity had one each. There was also a promotion apiece in the employment, securities litigation, technology and IP transactions and public company advisory practices. 

The promotions come as Weil prepares for the retirement of Barry Wolf, executive partner and chair of the firm’s management committee. Weil’s London office is also set for new leadership, with public M&A partner David Avery-Gee and private equity partner Jonathan Wood to take over as co-managing partners following Mike Francies’ retirement at the end of this year after more than two decades as London managing partner, Legal Business reported. 

Wolf said in a statement that the new partners “epitomise the client-centric and forward-looking culture for which Weil is so well known”. 

“They also reflect our firm’s broad practice strength and global presence, with our new partner class spanning 12 practice areas and seven offices around the world,” he added. 

Weil’s new partners includes:

Chase A. Bentley: Restructuring (New York)
Steven Bentsianov: Public Company Advisory Group (New York)
Brittany Burnham: Private Funds (New York)
Celine Chan: Employment (New York)
Jenny Choi: Banking and Finance (London)
Brendan C. Conley: Banking and Finance (Dallas)
Matthew S. Connors: Securities Litigation (New York)
Jennifer Brooks Crozier: Complex Commercial Litigation (New York)
Jeffrey L. Dawidowicz: Structured Finance and Derivatives (New York)
Matthias Eiden: Restructuring (Frankfurt)
David M. Jackson: Structured Finance and Derivatives (New York)
Claudia Lai: Mergers and Acquisitions (Dallas)
Andrew Lauder: Structured Finance and Derivatives (London)
Brian Liegel: Complex Commercial Litigation/Appeals and Strategic Counselling (Miami)
Alexander J. Miachika: Private Equity (New York)
Stephanie N. Morrison: Restructuring (Houston)
Josh Wesneski: Complex Commercial Litigation/Appeals and Strategic Counselling (Washington DC)
Kane Wishart: Technology and IP Transactions (New York)