Top 15 US firm Jones Day has promoted 51 lawyers to partner in its latest round, a slight increase on the 45 who made the grade last year.

Women made up 16 of the promotions, or 31% of the overall cohort, down from 49% last year. Like last year US promotions dominated, with 71% of the cohort working across the firm’s domestic network, 22% in Europe and the remainder spread across Asia, Australia, the Middle East and South America. The lawyers will assume their new roles at the start of next year.

The firm’s corporate practice saw the most promotions with nine, followed by its business and tort litigation and financial markets teams (eight each), global disputes (five), issues and appeals (four) and antitrust and competition law (three). 

New York and the firm’s Cleveland headquarters saw the most promotions, with five each. They included financial markets duo Michael Kobb and John Nogueras in New York and corporate lawyers David Schindelheim and Brian Grady in Cleveland. There were also multiple promotions in Atlanta (four) and Minneapolis, Dallas and Chicago (three each). 

Paris led the overseas promotions with four, among them disputes lawyer Claire Pauly and real estate specialist Flavia Poujade. There were three promotions in London – disputes duo Sarah Batley and James Fidler and corporate lawyer Katie Brown. 

Elsewhere in Europe the firm promoted one lawyer each in its Dusseldorf, Milan, Madrid and Brussels offices. Its Perth, Shanghai, Dubai and Mexico City offices also saw one promotion apiece.


Firm managing partner, Gregory Schumaker, commented: “The promotion of these new partners reflects Jones Day’s ongoing commitment to developing and advancing lawyers throughout the world who have achieved the highest levels of professional accomplishment and who are devoted to advancing the interests of our clients and the institutional values of the firm.”

Schumaker took over as managing partner of the 2,400-lawyer firm at the start of this year from Stephen Brogan, who had led Jones Day for 20 years. The famously conservative firm places an unusual amount of authority in its leader and maintains its tradition of allowing its incumbent managing partner to choose their successor. 

Jones Day has also been active in the lateral hiring market this year. Earlier this month it hired finance partner Carine Mou Si Yan in Paris from Orrick and added Chris Arnold to its financial markets practice in London from Mayer Brown. The firm also bolstered its employment and privacy ranks in London earlier this year with the hire of partner Pulina Whitaker from Morgan Lewis. 

Meanwhile in the US the firm has hired partners including M&A specialist Faisal Delawalla in Chicago from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and corporate lawyer Braden McCurrach in New York from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft. 

The full list of promotions can be found here.