The pair join firms including Macfarlanes, CMS Cameron McKenna and Wragge & Co to increase their tallies on last year, with Trowers & Hamlins the only firm to date to see a significant drop in its number of new partners.
Herbert Smith has promoted twice as many lawyers as last year with 18 new partners officially joining its ranks at the start of this week, of whom only eight are in its City base with the rest divided between
The promotions represent a major increase on last year’s nine promotions and take the firm’s total partnership to 245 — up from 230 at 1 May last year.
Olswang, meanwhile, is set to break through the 100-partner barrier for the first time after doubling its promotion round, with 10 of its associates making partner with effect from 1 May — its biggest batch of promotions since the firm’s foundation in 1981.
The promotions, which take the firm to 103 partners, represent a 24% increase in partner numbers compared with 1 May last year. Olswang also recruited 19 lateral partners over the 12-month period, including Faegre & Benson corporate partner Max Audley and Sidley Austin finance partner Steve Clark.
Olswang managing partner David Stewart (pictured) told Legal Week: “Considering we had 22 partners in 1997 when I started and now we are breaching the 100-partner mark, I am proud we have this many people making such a strong business case to become partners.”
Ashurst is the first major City firm to announce a drop in the number of partners it is promoting this year, with the top 10 firm making up 17 of its associates, compared to last year’s figure of 20. Of the promotions, eight come in the firm’s City hub, while
Corporate is the firm’s biggest beneficiary, with six new partners, followed by finance which gets four.
Meanwhile, Camerons promoted 11 associates to partner up from 10 last year — four of which are in the City. The promotions will take the firm’s partner numbers to 148 on 1 May this year.
Trowers is the only
Wragges promoted nine partners this year compared with six last year, while Pinsent Masons made up 17 this year compared with 20 in last year’s round. Around one-third of both firms’ promotions are female.
The latest announcements come after Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer kicked off the annual promotion round with the news that it was making up 25 new partners, compared with 22 in 2007. However, the promotions make little difference to the firm’s overall partnership size; taking it from 455 in 2007 to 447 in 2008.
Commenting on the promotion round, Freshfields chief executive Ted Burke told Legal Week: “Partnership promotions are long-term decisions and should not generally be affected by the economic cycle."
He added: “However, there are other long-term trends such as globalisation that do have an effect on our partnership decisions. We have made up an increasing number of partners in
Stewart added: “Although business activity is going to be affected by the liquidity, firms will not be short-termist”.
Hughes-Castell recruiter Scott Gibson told Legal Week: “It is not that surprising because law firms are going to have close to a record year. With all the promotions in corporate they are investing in the future. But you can bet your bottom dollar there will not be as many promotions this time next year.”
For the most complete coverage of the 2008 partnership round, check the Legal Week Wiki partnership special.
