Covington & Burling has promoted its first London lawyer to partnership since 2014.
Life sciences lawyer Brian Kelly is the firm’s sole City promotion, with Covington last making up Robin Blaney in the same team in 2014.
Kelly started off his career as a journalist at life sciences publications before training as a lawyer. He worked as an in-hose lawyer at Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals, before joining Covington as an associate in 2006.
His promotion is Covington’s only one in Europe, with the dozen other new partners all hailing from the US. Covington’s Washington office saw the highest number of promotions – a total of nine. San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York saw one promotion each.
A number of practice areas fared particularly well in the promotions round, including litigation, life sciences and employment. Nearly half of the lawyers made up are female, accounting for six new partners, or 46 per cent.
According to The Lawyer’s International Top 30 report, Covington usually promotes between 10 and 15 lawyers per year.
The firm made up 15 lawyers in 2012 and 2014, announcing a smaller than usual promotions round last year of nine.
Promotions in full
Sean Akins, Washington DC, corporate
Erica Andersen, Washington DC, IP
Elizabeth Canter, Washington DC, data privacy
Heather Haberl, Washington DC, real estate
Henry Liu, Washington DC, litigation
Jennifer Saperstein, Washington DC, compliance
William Woolston, Washington DC, employment
Roger Zakheim, Washington DC, public policy and government affairs
David Zionts, Washington DC, litigation
Grechen Hoff Varner, San Francisco, litigation
Brian Kelly, London, life sciences
Aaron Lewis, Los Angeles, crime and regulatory
Jenna Wallace, New York, employment
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