Baker McKenzie has promoted 45 new partners across its international network in its annual summer promotions round, with 21 new partners having been made up across North and Latin America in January.

This year’s 66 promotions are a marked step down on last year, when 89 were made up across the two rounds, and is more in line with the previous two years, when 75 and 67 lawyers got the nod respectively. 

Overall women made up 52% of this year’s promotions, the highest in the firm’s history and a proportion the firm said underscored its “ongoing commitment to fostering a more gender equitable future”.

The latest cohort moves the firm closer to the 40:40:20 gender diversity targets it announced in 2019 for partners, representing 40% women, 40% men and 20% flexible (women, men or non-binary persons). 

As with previous years the firm’s M&A, tax and dispute resolution practices saw the most promotions, welcoming 17, 10 and nine new partners respectively. There were six promotions in the international commercial and trade team, five each in the IP, and employment and compensation practices, and four in the antitrust and competition team. The rest were split between banking and finance, capital markets, and energy and infrastructure, which welcomed three new partners apiece, with the final promotion going to real estate lawyer Juan Guerra-Gascon in the firm’s Guadalajara office. 

Like last year Europe gained the most new partners – 23, including six in London, where Anthony Gamble was made up in the antitrust and competition team alongside James Tanner (banking and finance), Tom McNaughton (employment and compensation), Rhiannon William (energy and infrastructure), Charlotte Nolan (M&A) and Claudine Fox (tax). There were four promotions in Germany across Dusseldorf and Frankfurt, four in Spain in Madrid and Barcelona, three in Vienna and one apiece in Stockholm, Zurich, Paris, Milan, Budapest and Amsterdam. 

Like last year, the Asia Pacific promotions were dominated by Thailand, where nine partners were made up in Bangkok. There was a single promotion in Hanoi, while the Hong Kong and Australia teams each welcome three new partners with the promotions in this region completed by finance transactions lawyer Kunal Katre in Singapore. 

Elsewhere across the world, there were three promotions in the Middle East – in Dubai and Riyadh – one in Johannesburg and one in Santiago, Chile, where Martin Muller got the nod in the M&A team. 

“Each year, it is an honour to announce our promotions to partner and I would like to express my congratulations to these talented lawyers whose career milestone coincides with Baker McKenzie’s 75th anniversary,” said Milton Cheng, Bakers’ global chair. “This year has been particularly noteworthy thanks to the significant number of women making up our new partner ranks. As we celebrate this achievement, we also remain focused on our ongoing commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment.”

Looking back on January’s round, the firm made up 13 lawyers across the US, where Chicago gained the most new partners (four), followed by Washington DC (three), New York and Dallas (both two) and one each in Houston and Palo Alto. Three partners were made up across Mexico, including one in Guadalajara, while capital markets lawyer Haran Viswanathan was promoted in Bakers’ sole office in Canada, in Toronto. 

The January round also included four promotions in the firm’s office in Bogotá, including M&A lawyer Natalia Ponce de León and antitrust specialist Angelica Navarro Acevedo. 

Bakers has also secured 48 lateral partners in its financial year to 30 June, meaning it has added a total of 114 partners globally since 1 July 2023.

Among them was the head of O’Melveny & Myers’ US M&A and private equity practice, Tobias Knapp, who joined the firm last month as co-head of its New York transactional group. 

Earlier this year the firm also hired a group of nine partners from Munger Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles to bolster its capabilities across M&A, private equity, funds, finance and transactional tax matters on the West Coast. 

The full list of new partners for 2024

Antitrust and Competition
Anthony Gamble (London)
Angelica Navarro Acevedo (Bogotá)*
Xandra Ståhlberg (Stockholm)
Angelo Tzarevski (Johannesburg)

Banking and Finance
Kunal Katre (Singapore)
James Tanner (London)
Robert Wippel (Vienna)

Capital Markets
Hessa AlAiban (Riyadh)
Warittha Jitvuttichod (Bangkok)
Haran Viswanathan (Toronto)*
Dispute Resolution
Ploy Chongcharoentanavat (Bangkok)
Graham Cronogue (Washington D.C.)*
Christine Cuthbert (Hong Kong)
Aleesha Fowler (Washington D.C.)*
Valentina Hirsiger (Zurich)
Max Oehm (Frankfurt)
Désirée Prantl (Vienna)
Andrew Prowse (Melbourne)
Yada Yuwataepakorn (Bangkok)
Employment & Compensation
Marc Cucarella (Barcelona)
Felix Diehl (Frankfurt)
Daniela Liévano (Bogotá)*
Tom McNaughton (London)
Paula Talavera (Madrid)
Energy & Infrastructure
Carlos Suarez (Chicago)*
Tatcha Thumpramoth (Bangkok)
Rhiannon Williams (London)
International Commercial & Trade
Laya Aoun (Dubai)
Sirikan Buranasiri (Bangkok)
Abhishek Dubé (Dallas)*
María Montejo Torres (Bogotá)*
Eunkyung Shin (Chicago)*
Katharina Weiner (Düsseldorf)

IP and Technology 
Pauline Celeyron (Paris)
Grace Gao (Hong Kong)**
Hoa Tran (Hanoi)
J. Bryan White (Dallas)*
Grace Wong (Hong Kong)

Mergers and Acquisitions
Tamim AlKhudhayri (Riyadh)
Naris Asavathongkul (Bangkok)
Alexandra Daniels (Chicago)*
Fang Fang (Palo Alto)*
Claudia Fochtmann-Tischler (Vienna)
Brooke Granger (Houston)*
Warut Horsimasathaporn (Bangkok)
Carlos Jiménez de Laiglesia (Madrid)
Lizzie Lu (Sydney) 
Anna Marina De Vivo (Milan)
Martin Muller (Santiago)
Charlotte Nolan (London)
Dániel Orosz (Budapest)
Joost Polman (Amsterdam)
Natalia Ponce de León (Bogotá)*
Guillermo Eduardo Rojas Montiel (Mexico City)*
Richard Stefanink (Düsseldorf)

Real Estate
Juan Guerra-Gascon (Guadalajara)*

Tax
Janet Cho (Sydney)
Claudine Fox (London)
Sirirasi Gobpradit (Bangkok)
Bruno Keusses (Madrid)
Nitikan Ramanat (Bangkok)
Cameron Reilly (Chicago)*
Graco Sáenz Andapia (Mexico City)*
Wenham Shen (Washington D.C.)*
Michael Tedesco (New York)*
Amir-Kia Waxman (New York)*

*Promotions effective 1 January, 2024
**Registered foreign lawyer (partner equivalent)