CMS has promoted 41 partners across its network with both the number of new partners and the proportion of female appointees declining after a record year in 2019.

New appointments at the top 20 global firm have dipped by eight from 49 in 2019 with the percentage of women partners slipping from 47% to 41%.

In the UK, where senior partner Penelope Warne is a leading proponent of the need for the profession to improve its gender diversity, half of the 18 new partners are women, although this represents a fall from last year’s eye-catching result when 76% of the UK appointees were female.

Globally, around 20% of CMS’s partners are female, a proportion that rises to 32% in the UK, where 45% of the UK board are women.

Warne said: “We are very pleased to recognise the great talent and skills we have across the firm. We are also delighted by the strong representation of women joining as new partners and are very committed to investing in all our people and empowering all of them to reach their full potential.”

Mainland Europe accounted for 20 of the new partners — of whom six (30%) are women.

There was just one new partner promoted across CMS’s Latin America network compared to five last year. That honour went to Mexico City based projects and infrastructure specialist Marcia Santomé Sánchez. 

This year’s regional tally is completed by the promotion of two Kenyan lawyers: disputes specialist Grace Kinyanjui and corporate lawyer Samson Mac’Oduol.

They only joined the CMS network last October, when Kenyan firm Daly & Inamdar Advocates signed up to the network along with South Africa’s RM Partners.

In terms of practice areas, the largest proportion — nine — were corporate specialists followed by real estate and disputes, which both accounted for six partners.

Tax (four), finance (four) and IP (three) were the next most popular practice areas.

New partners by country:

France  

Benoît Provost - Corporate/M&A                             

Céline Cloché-Dubois - Environment, Public Law, Energy & Climate Change                               

Deana D’Almeida - Tax                                               

Frédéric Bertacchi - Tax                                                              

Matias Labé - Tax        

Germany

Dr André Frischemeier - Banking & Finance                              

Dr Christoph von Eiff - Corporate/M&A                                

Dr Daniel Kaiser- Commercial Criminal Law/Criminal Tax Law & Compliance    

Philipp Schönnenbeck - Real Estate & Public                               

Italy  

Fabrizio Alimandi - Tax                                                

Kenya

Grace Kinyanjui - Dispute Resolution, Insurance, Employment, IP                               

Samson Mac’Oduol - Corporate/M&A, Employment,Infrastructure & Projects, TMC 

Luxembourg 

Sylvain Elias - Corporate/M&A                                

Mexico

Marcia Santomé Sánchez - Projects & Infrastructure     

Monaco

Raphaëlle Svara - Private Client 

Poland   

Agnieszka Skorupinska - Environment       

Jakub Wieczorek - Banking & Finance                                         

Jakub Podkowa - Banking & Finance       

Romania       

Roxana Fratila - Real Estate & Construction                   

Russia

Artashes Oganov - Real Estate & Construction 

Switzerland  

Jérôme Levrat - Corporate/M&A                                

Ukraine

Natalia Kushniruk - Real Estate & Construction    

United Kingdom

Anna Brackenbury - Intellectual Property

Anna Ralston-Crane - Real Estate                                    

Catherine Merry - Corporate, Employee Incentives 

Chris Clark - Capital Markets & Derivatives                

Chris D'Emanuele - Real Estate                                     

Jane Hollywood - Intellectual Property                                

Kushal Gandhi - Litigation & Arbitration                

Louise Boswell - Litigation & Arbitration                

Louise Dalton - Power                                             

Mark Breslin - Infrastructure, Construction & Energy (ICE) Disputes                   

Mark Jenkins - Pensions                                        

Rebekah Hayes - Technology & Media                                         

Russell Hoare - Competition                                    

Sam Pout - Corporate                                       

Sarah Innes - Intellectual Property                                

Theo Godfrey - Corporate                                       

Tim Sales -Litigation & Arbitration                 

Vanessa Whitman - Banking Litigation