Willkie Farr & Gallagher has promoted 30 lawyers to partner in its latest promotions round, which boosts the firm’s London partner bench by 25%.
The firm has made up seven lawyers in London, the most of any city included in the round and its largest intake in the City for a number of years.
Effective 1 January 2026, the round spanned five US cities, France and Germany alongside the UK and seven practice areas, with the 13 promotions in corporate and financial services making it by far the dominant practice.
Firm chair Thomas Cerabino said the newly-promoted partners “will be important contributors as we continue to expand our global platform”.
The firm’s New York headquarters received the most promotions after London, with six, followed by four apiece in Washington DC and Houston, two in Chicago and one in Los Angeles, where Matthew Busch was welcomed in the litigation team.
There were also three promotions in Germany, where the firm opened its third office in Hamburg in the summer with the help of restructuring and litigation teams hired from Quinn Emanuel and Latham & Watkins, respectively. There were also three promotions in Paris.
After corporate, the highest number of promotions were in Willkie’s asset management practice, followed by litigation (four), finance (four), IP (two), antitrust (one) and communications and media (one).
In London, Magdi Adab, Eilidh Brown and Rebecca Hughes got the nod in the corporate team; Mélina Combeau and Charles Hadley joined the asset management partner bench; with Alaric Green (antitrust and competition) and Timothy Sawyer (finance) completing the contingent.
The promotions bring Willkie’s London partnership to 36 and underscore the growing importance of the practice to the US firm, which in 2024 highlighted its status as one of the fastest-growing firms in London over the previous five years.
The firm made a splash in London back in 2019 when it hired private equity heavyweights David Arnold and Gavin Gordon from Kirkland & Ellis, and over the next five years, grew its London headcount by 125% to 135 lawyers through hires and promotions in key areas like private equity, antitrust litigation and international arbitration.
Last month, Kirkland private equity partner Hamesh Khatkar joined the office, shortly after secondaries specialist Benoit Champon moved over from Akin, where he was a counsel. Going the other way, Duncan Speller, Willkie’s London arbitration co-head, left last month for Duane Morris.
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