Top 100 UK law firm Lewis Silkin has made up nine lawyers in its latest partner promotions round, which the London-based firm noted was its largest to date and includes five women. 

The round follows a four-strong cohort in 2023 that included one woman and is more than four times the size of the round in 2022, when the firm promoted just two lawyers to its partnership, both of them men. 

All but one of this year’s promotions went to lawyers based in London, where the successful women candidates included head of share incentives Kathy Granby and Sarah McWhinney, who is part of the firm’s employment, immigration and reward (EIR) team and focuses on contentious matters and senior hires and exits in the financial and professional services sectors. They were promoted alongside Wendy Saunders, head of the firm’s financial services regulatory team, and charterted trademark attorney Abigail Wise. 

Also moving up in London are intellectual property disputes specialist Nicholas Buckland, data protection lawyer Benjamin Favaro and David Lorimer, who advises on employment and workplace privacy law matters. 

The final London promotion went to Sadiq Tajbhai in the corporate, commercial and partnerships practice, where he advises on a range of matters including acquisitions and restructurings for clients in the advertising and marketing, PR and technology sectors.

The sole promotion outside London was in Manchester, where Carly Mather was welcomed in the EIR team. She specialises in supporting businesses going through corporate restructures, reorganisation and other change projects.

Jo Evans, who became Lewis Silkin’s first woman chair in 2022, commented: “Being able to promote a record number of members of our team to the partnership is a reflection of the bench strength of talent at the firm and our commitment to invest in our people for the long term.

“All our newly promoted partners have demonstrated deep practice knowledge and expertise, their dedication to brilliant client service and a desire to continue nurturing our culture. I congratulate them all and look forward to welcoming them to our partnership.”

The promotions take effect 1 April and bring the firm’s partner headcount to 91 across its offices in London, Manchester, Leeds, Oxford, Cardiff, Dublin, Belfast and Hong Kong.