Slaughters makes up just two in partnership round

Slaughter and May has become the second magic circle firm to announce its partnership promotions - making up half as many new partners as last year.

The firm has promoted two lawyers to its partnership, down from four in 2008 and five in 2007.

David Ives (pictured left) and Michael Lane (pictured below right) will both join the firm's tightly-guarded partnership on 1 May, respectively bolstering numbers in the firm's outsourcing, intellectual property and technology and tax practices.

Their promotions will take partner numbers at the firm to 131 from the start of the new financial year - marginally down on last year's equivalent figure of 132.

Slaughters senior partner Chris Saul denied that this year's promotions had been affected by the market conditions. He said: "We are thrilled with the promotions. They will both make a wonderful contribution to the practice and to the firm. David is a talented outsourcer and IP/IT specialist and Mike is a multi-dexterous tax specialist. These are important practice areas for us."

The firm has 117 partners based in London and 14 across its Hong Kong, Brussels and Paris offices. The overwhelming majority (106) of Slaughter' partnership is male, with the firm counting only 25 female partners.

This year's partnership promotion round is widely expected to be down on previous years across the City as firms feel the impact of the economic downturn. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the first magic circle firm to announce its promotions, made up 14 new partners this year - significantly down on last year's tally of 25.

In contrast to Slaughters, which has made up only one corporate partner across the last two promotion rounds, the bulk of Freshfields promotions were in corporate - which gained nine new partners worldwide.

Click here for a full round-up of this year's partner promotions so far.

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