City elite sees sharp increase in partner promotions and improved female promotion prospects

Magic Circle takes a leaf from US playbook after a parsimonious 2018

This time last year, Legal Business was still lamenting that the post-banking crisis clampdown on promoting partners at City firms had showed little sign of lifting, with the Magic Circle in particular promoting at levels insufficient to sustain partnership sizes.

The promotion rounds announced so far this year have told a different story, not least that City institutions finally appear to be heeding the example set by US leaders handing out more partnerships and promoting more women.

Collectively, Allen & Overy (A&O), Clifford Chance (CC), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Slaughter and May made up 120 partners in 2019, a 35% increase on the 89 managed last year. Such figures are up also well up on the group’s collective tally for 2017 (when they made up 99 partners) and 2016 (96). The group also posted fewer male-centric promotions in 2019 after a poor overall showing last year.

A&O, Linklaters and CC continue to be the most expansive firms of the UK elite, racking up 34, 33 and 30 promotions respectively. While historically more parsimonious, Freshfields, with its 22 promotions this year, was nevertheless well up on the just 12 promoted worldwide in 2018. The much-smaller Slaughters was guarding its equity even closer than usual, however, making up only one new partner.

After a rebound in the preceding three years which saw Slaughters make up ten in 2016, seven in 2017 and four in 2018, a total of 21, the retrenchment seems to be a return to the subdued levels seen during 2011-13, when the firm made up just nine partners in three years.

This year City firms have been noticeably making up headline-grabbing percentages of women partners after what proved an embarrassing year for many in 2018.

This year City firms have been noticeably making up headline-grabbing percentages of women partners after what proved an embarrassing year for many in 2018.

Linklaters, in its largest overall promotion round since the banking crisis, led the pack promoting 11 women, exceeding its 30% annual target and edging the female contingent of its partnership above 20% for the first time. Linklaters had previously fallen considerably short on this score, promoting only five females, or 19% of the 26-strong round.

In March, Linklaters managing partner Gideon Moore (pictured) told Legal Business that the result was a validation of the changes the firm was driving through the partnership in terms of diversity and inclusion: ‘We are heading in the direction we wish to, bearing in mind where we started from and the way the partnership evolved. I won’t be satisfied until it’s 50-50.’

A&O last year only promoted two female partners in a 20-strong round, which triggered vows from management to redouble its diversity efforts. It managed eight female promotions among 34 new partners this time around, a more respectable 24% of the cohort. A&O also reiterated its commitment to innovation by promoting Shruti Ajitsaria, the head of its tech innovation space Fuse, into the partnership.

In its largest promotion round of the decade at 30 lawyers, a third of CC’s new intake is female, a move that has bolstered the firm’s proportion of women partners to 20%. With the exception of Slaughters’ sole (male) promotion, Freshfields has been most conservative but the six women – or 27% of the cohort – is proportional and an improvement on last year’s three.

The increase in promotions is a trend that has gone beyond the London elite, with top 25 firms Simmons & Simmons and Gowling WLG registering strong rounds and CMS promoting 49, of which 47% were women. Herbert Smith Freehills and Eversheds Sutherland also recorded increased rounds while diminishing their focus on London promotions, while Fieldfisher promoted 17, its largest round to date.

As chronicled in Legal Business’ recent Global London report, US leaders Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, White & Case and Baker McKenzie continue to blaze a trail with substantial numbers of London promotions.

While the City elite’s post-Lehman grip on partnership has eased for a year, aggressive recruitment of senior associates by US rivals could soon be forcing considerably more generous partner rounds in the years ahead.

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk