Ashurst beats 40% gender diversity target in 2018 promotions

Ashurst has surpassed its 40 per cent target for female promotions, with women making up 58 per cent of the lawyers in this latest promotions round.

This is a substantial difference from the firm’s 2017 round, when just four women were made partner out of a headcount of 19, averaging at 20 per cent. In 2014, Ashurst proposed 40 per cent of promotions to partnership to be female by 2018.

Despite this, in the London office out of a total of nine new partners, only a third are women.

These are finance lawyer Laura Ho, corporate lawyer Tara Waters and restructuring and special situations lawyer Ru-Woei Foong. Foong began her legal career at Ashurst, whereas Ho was previously at Dublin-based firm A&L Goodbody, and Waters was an associate at Allen & Overy, before moving to Simmons & Simmons and then Ashurst in 2014.

Only one real estate lawyer has been promoted: Tim Regis in the London office, while the other promotions have seen a focus on global markets and projects. These include London-based global markets lawyers Kerion Ball and James Knight, and projects lawyer Jonathan Turner. Drew Sainsbury will join Foong in London’s restructuring practice.

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