US firms have begun to announce their partnership promotions with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan making the largest number of partner promotions in the firm’s history, while Sidley Austin, Bingham McCutchen and Dechert all announced a decrease in associates to be made up on 1 January.
Quinn Emanuel announced today (13 December 2013) it is appointing 13 new partners in the firm’s largest promotion round yet. For the last three years, the firm has steadily increased its number of partner promotions with 10 new partner elections in 2012, up from eight in 2011 and seven the year before.
Aside from one partner promotion in Paris, the rest were all made up in the US, with seven being elected in the firm’s New York office. Three of those promoted were women compared to one female partner promotion in 2012.
Managing partner John Quinn (pictured) said: ‘We do not go into our partner election meeting with some artificial cap on the number of new partners in mind. Throughout our firm’s history we consistently recognise hard work and talent. We have promoted every attorney who has earned it.’
The steady increase in partner promotions is in line with the firm’s remarkable revenue growth over the last few years, with turnover rising 18% to £852.6m – an increase of 122% from 2007 to 2012.
Meanwhile, Sidley Austin has elected 24 new partners to its ranks across nine of the firm’s offices. In the US, seven were made up in Chicago, six in Washington DC, five in New York and one each in Dallas, Los Angeles and Houston, while three were made up outside of the US with one each in Beijing, Brussels and Geneva.
Last year, the firm made up 26 lawyers in nine offices, promoting two lawyers in London, one in Singapore and the remaining 23 in the US across its corporate, litigation and regulatory practices.
Bingham McCutchen has also revealed a reduced number of promotions, making up ten lawyers down from the 12 partners announced at the start of the year. The new partners will span New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Hartford and Hong Kong. None were made up in London, compared to two City promotions that took place previously.
Promotions were across a range of specialisms including investment management, structured transactions, private equity and M&A, financial restructuring, commercial real estate transactions, financial regulatory and litigation, corporate finance, and antitrust litigation.
Bingham chairman and CEO Jay Zimmerman said: ‘Our clients are involved in complex, cross-border matters, and we continue to build upon our platform providing high-quality legal services worldwide. The addition of these highly qualified lawyers to the partnership further strengthens the firm’s deep bench of talent.’
Similarly, Dechert promoted 11 lawyers to partnership, making up two in London and one in Hong Kong, down from 12 promotions last year when three lawyers were promoted in London.
The new partners are spread across the firm’s antitrust, corporate, finance and real estate, financial services, international dispute resolution and litigation groups, in eight of the firm’s 26 offices, four of which are outside the US.
Dechert CEO Daniel O’Donnell said: ‘The diversity of practice areas and locations represented by this partnership class reflects our global footprint and will help us in our efforts to serving clients across an expanding network.’
Jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk