Top 25 US firm Mayer Brown has elevated 35 lawyers to its partnership, with a further 18 being promoted to counsel.

This year’s cohort is slightly down on the 39 who made partner last year and 26 who became counsel. More than half of this year’s partner intake were women (18 of the 35, or 51%), a significant improvement on the 26% of women who were included in 2021’s cohort. This year’s promotions were spread across 11 practices and 14 global offices. 

The firm’s Chicago head office saw the most newly-minted partners with 10, followed by New York with five and Hong Kong with four. London welcomed four new partners, including ESG lawyer Tim Baines, banking and finance lawyers Nanak Keswani and Ravi Amin and litigation and dispute resolution specialist Sam Prentki. There were also two promotions a piece in Rio de Janeiro and Frankfurt, and one each in Paris and Brussels.

The firm’s banking and finance practice is expanding the most, with 13 new partners. Litigation and dispute resolution and real estate markets received four each, while the intellectual property and corporate and securities practices received three each. The tax practice saw two promotions, including Karen Kim in New York and Anthony Pastore in Chicago.

Jon Van Gorp, chair of Mayer Brown, said: “The promise of these lawyers is an inspiration, and we appreciate their dedication to superior client service and applaud their well-earned success.”

The banking and finance practice also saw the most counsel promotions with five, while litigation saw three. Paris saw four promotions and London three, including real estate lawyer Danielle Blass, employment and benefits lawyer Katherine Fox and international trade expert Paul Whitfield-Jones. New York also saw three promotions, although IP lawyer Emily Nash will also spend half her time in Chicago. Women made up 10 of the counsel promotions, or 56%, compared to half in 2021.

Meantime in the lateral hire market, Mayer Brown this month added Vincenzo Feldmann in Paris from Gide Loyrette Nouel, re-joining the firm as a partner in its employment and benefits practice. Also this month it hired a trio of real estate and projects and infrastructure lawyers from Greenberg Traurig in Washington DC, including partner Emily Naughton and associates Whitney Smith and Sarah Mernin.