As of 1 May, Slaughters is promoting four associates to its notoriously selective partnership, bringing the overall partner numbers at the firm to 132.
Once the new promotions take effect, 25 of the firm’s partners will be female, representing 19% of the partnership.
Despite its ultra-conservative reputation, Slaughters already has some of the best-known female lawyers in the City and last month announced that Frances Murphy was to become the firm’s first-ever female head of corporate.
The promotions see the firm’s competition practice gain two new partners, Isabel Taylor and Sarah Cardell, with Ben Kingsley being promoted in financial regulation and Rebecca Cousin in corporate.
However, the number of promotions will not be viewed as a massive vote of confidence in the current transactional market, given the single promotion in the firm’s much-vaunted corporate practice.
Promotion numbers at the firm have remained steady over the last few years, with the firm promoting five partners in 2007, with a
Of the firm’s total partnership, 118 are based in
Slaughters senior partner-elect Chris Saul (pictured) told Legal Week: “It’s a great crop of new partners. We always select people based on who we think is right and not as a function of the market. It is a co-incidence there are so many females!"
He added: “Clearly, it’s a useful increment to our competition practice, which is busy at the moment. And on the regulatory front it’s nice to have a boost too because that is increasingly important.”
As expected, Slaughters' promotions have again been dwarfed by its
The announcement means Linklaters is the only magic circle firm yet to announce its promotions, with Clifford Chance this week announcing it was making up 35. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has promoted 25.
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