White & Case has made up eight London partners in a larger than usual promotions round of 40.
The US firm also promoted eight lawyers in the City last year, but the number of promotions around the world had dipped to 31.
This year’s 40 new partners make it one of White & Case largest promotions round in the last six years, with the eight London lawyers made up in a number of different practice areas.
A duo have been promoted in the firm’s M&A group – Katja Butler and Jarlath McGurran.
Butler joined White & Case in 2014 from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and trained at Linklaters. McGurran also worked at Linklaters before joining the US firm last year.
White & Case’s finance practices have fared well in the promotions round, with Emma Foster, Ben Davies and Gareth Hodder made up in banking, financial restructuring and project finance respectively.
Foster and Davies trained at the firm, while Hodder has worked at Shearman & Sterling, Hogan Lovells and Ince & Co. Following the promotion, Hodder will relocate to White & Case’s Johannesburg office.
In litigation, White & Case-trained Paul Brumpton and Amanda Cowell have made it to partner in arbitration and commercial litigation group respectively.
Joanna Dimmock has been named a partner in the white-collar practice having joined the US firm a year ago. She has been an associate at Dechert and Peters & Peters.
Out of the eight new partners in London, a total of four lawyers trained at White & Case, with London executive partner Oliver Brettle highlighting this as particularly notable.
“They would have been recruited by us in 2003/04 to join our trainee scheme,” he said. “This is a long-term investment strategy and it shows it is working.”
White & Case promoted a total of 21 partners across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with just the London and Paris offices seeing more than one promotion. Frankfurt, Hamburg, Abu Dhabi and Prague, for example, all saw one lawyer made up.
A total of 17 lawyers were made up across the firm’s US offices, in Boston, New York, Silicon Valley and Washington DC. The final two promotions were made in the firm’s Asia practices in Hong Kong and Tokyo.
White & Case’s promotions process begins in April and the final decision is made in September/October. On average, it takes around eight to 10 years post-qualification to make it to partner.
Brettle also highlighted the number of female promotions this year, with women accounting for half of the promotions in London and nearly 50 per cent worldwide.
“All firms have a challenge on gender,” he said. “We’re not declaring a victory at all but it is worth noting.”
White & Case made headlines on Thursday (13 October) when The Lawyer revealed it had hired Clifford Chance corporate star and banks co-head Patrick Sarch. The US firm is understood to have voted him in this week.
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