Global

Los Angeles-headquartered Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and Texan firm Baker Botts have both promoted significant numbers of lawyers to their partnerships recently.
Legal Week newspaper reports that Gibson Dunn made up, including London dispute resolution associate Osma Rajah. The rest, which are mainly spread across the firm’s US offices, come into effect at the beginning of next month. They are: Adam Di Vincenzo (antitrust, Washington DC), Brian Gingold (corporate, New York), Perlette Michele Jura (litigation, Los Angeles), Matthew Kelsey (business restructuring, New York), Matthew Kidd (real estate, New York), Thomas Manakides (litigation, Orange County in California), Scott Martin (litigation, Washington DC), Farshad More (real estate, Los Angeles), Osma Rajah (dispute resolution, London), Kahn Scolnick (litigation, Los Angeles) and Georgia Winston (corporate crime, New York).
Meanwhile Baker Botts’ 15-strong promotion round included London lawyer Hannah Longley, who is expected to relocate to the firm’s planned Rio de Janeiro office next year. The promotions in full are: James Chenoweth (tax, Houston), Russ Crain (intellectual property, Dallas), Ginger Faulk (global projects, Washington DC), Liz Flannery (intellectual property, Houston), Jessica Fore (global projects, Washington DC), Konstantin Garmonin (corporate, Moscow), Steve Lendaris (intellectual property, New York), Hannah Longley (global projects, London (Rio)), Walter Lynch (litigation, Houston), Stuart McIntyre (global projects, London), Tom O'Brien (litigation, Dallas), Jason Rocha (corporate, Houston), Kim Schlanger (global projects, Houston), Robinson Vu (intellectual property, Houston) and Chris Wilson (global projects, Houston).

Europe

Independent Italian law firm Legance has appointed two new partners from 1 January 2013: administrative law specialist Giuseppe Abbruzzese, and EU, antitrust and regulation expert Vito Auricchio.
French firm STC Partners has appointed three partners in corporate and tax positions: Christine Le Breton will boost the corporate team, while Jérôme Talleux and Bertrand Araud will integrate into the firm’s tax department.

US

Jeremy Zucker has joined the Washington DC office of international law firm Dechert. The former Hogan Lovells partner joins as a partner in the firm’s international trade practice. Mr Zucker advises on the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and on matters concerning the export administration regulations, the international traffic in arms regulations, the anti-money laundering provisions of the USA Patriot Act, and economic sanctions programmes under the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Asia

London-based international law firm Norton Rose has appointed its seventh Beijing partner after poaching Li Jinnan from the banking group of King & Wood Mallesons' Beijing office.
UK law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain has snapped up Davide De Rosa as a senior advisor in the firm’s two-month-old Hong Kong office. He joins RPC from law firm De Bedin & Lee’s Hong Kong office, and prior to that he was at Clyde & Co, also in Hong Kong. Mr De Rosa will focus on advising Italian businesses with involvement in China.
Atlanta law firm King & Spalding has recruited cross-border development expert Kelly Malone as a partner in its Singapore energy practice. Mr Malone joins from the Singapore office of leading Norwegian firm Wikborg Rein where he headed the firm’s global projects team. Two senior lawyers and an associate from Mr Malone’s team also made the switch.

Offshore

Anthony Travers has taken the senior partner slot at boutique Cayman and British Virgin Islands law firm Thorp Alberga. Mr Travers is the former senior partner at Maples and Calder, and had taken a six-year break from practice. He now returns to the 10-partner boutique practice, which has been renamed Travers Thorp Alberga.
Michael Alberga takes the managing partner at the firm.

Africa

Julius Mukumbya Musoke, previously principal counsel at the Africa Development Bank in Tunis, has joined the partnership at Ugandan law firm AF Mpanga. A project finance, equity and banking transactions specialist, Mr Musoke had been with the African Development Bank since March 2004.

UK

Stuart Fitzsimmons and Alan Eccles have been promoted to the partnership of UK commercial law firm Maclay Murray & Spens. The move beefs up the firm’s banking and finance and private client capabilities, and marks the appointment of 10 partners in slightly more than a year. The firm said Mr Eccles will continue to build his portfolio of Scottish charities clients from the firm’s offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, while Mr Fitzsimmons will work from the Aberdeen office on projects ranging from acquisition, property and project finance, to corporate banking and restructuring.
New York law firm Fried Frank has announced that international arbitration specialist Justin Michaelson has joined the firm’s litigation department in London as a partner. Mr Michaelson specialises in high-value, multijurisdictional disputes across a variety of sectors. He was previously head of international arbitration at SJ Berwin, and prior to that he was at New York’s Weil Gotshal & Manges.
Elsewhere, 24 members at London barristers’ chambers  4-5 Gray’s Inn Square, including seven QC’s, are joining 39 Essex Street in a mass defection of nearly half the set. The newspaper Legal Week reports that the moves come after failed discussions of a possible combination earlier last month. 39 Essex Street now boasts 118 members, including 37 silks.
The Gray's Inn members joining 39 Essex Street are QCs: Brian Ash, John Steel, Hodge Malek, Peter Village, Timothy Lyons, Thomas Hill and Paul Stinchcombe; other tenants making the switch are James Ramsden, Andrew Tabachnik, Damian Falkowski, James Strachan, Jonathan Auburn, Anna Bicarregui, Mungo Wenban-Smith, Michelle Pratley, Jack Anderson, Thomas Amraoui, Ned Helme, Jennifer Thelen, Philippa Jackson, Ben Tankel, Annabel Lee, James Potts and Yash Bheeroo.