Cleary Gottlieb has promoted 26 lawyers to partner in its latest promotions round, the first for the firm since it introduced a non-equity tier to its partnership. 

The promotions are effective 1 January 2025 and include 11 women – a larger proportion than last year, when five of the 15 made up to partner were female.

The latest round will bring Cleary’s total worldwide partners to 212, the firm said. The antitrust and capital markets practices had the most promotions, with six apiece, followed by M&A and private funds, which each had three. The rest of the promotions were spread across Cleary’s banking and financial institutions, bankruptcy and restructuring, capital solutions, debt finance, executive compensation and benefits, financial regulation, foreign investment, litigation and arbitration, and tax practices.  

Like last year, just over half of the promotions went to lawyers based in the US, including 10 that received the nod in the firm’s New York headquarters, including private funds duo Emily Alfano and Alexander Argyris. Kelsey Nussenfeld was also welcomed in the New York M&A practice, following the defection of newly-minted M&A partner Nickolas Bogdanovich and top deals lawyer Jim langston for Paul Weiss in New York earlier this year.   

The remaining four US promotions were in the firm’s Washington DC office, among them antitrust duo Blair Matthews and Cunzhen Huang, as well as Samuel Chang, who was made up in the foreign investment and national security practice. 

Like last year the firm’s London office had the most promotions outside of the US, with four this time, spread across the firm’s M&A, capital markets, antitrust and banking and financial institutions practices. Earlier in the year Cleary also bolstered its private equity partner bench in London with the hire of debt finance specialist Alexander van der Gaag from Kirkland & Ellis. 

Elsewhere there were two promotions in Brussels, where antitrust lawyers Vladimir Novak and Romi Lepetska were made up, and two in Paris – M&A lawyer Hugues Tabardel and Alexis Raguet, who focuses on capital markets and corporate M&A matters. The remaining four promotions were spread across Frankfurt, Rome, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi, where Mohamed Taha was made up in the capital markets group. 

“When it comes to our firm’s ability to serve clients, there is no greater asset than our people,” said Cleary managing partner, Michael Gerstenzang. “These new partners and counsel reflect our tradition of excellence in client service, and have demonstrated the creativity, pragmatic acumen and skills to address the most complicated client needs.

“We congratulate these talented lawyers. They represent our firm’s commitment to continued growth, innovation and adaptability, while maintaining the values and culture that are at the core of our organisation.”

Cleary confirmed last month it would introduce a non-equity partner tier, which can help to attract and retain lawyers with the prestige and higher pay of the partner title, while also possibly increasing the profits of the equity partnership. The move followed rivals Cravath Swaine & Moore, Paul Weiss and WilmerHale all making the same call within the last year. 

Back in 2020 Cleary also modified its lockstep to reward top-performing partners, American Lawyer reported, amid increased pressure to attract and retain star talent.