Linklaters has promoted 17 women out of a total of 41 new partners in a promotions round that beats the firm’s diversity targets for a second year running.

The 41% percent tally of women partners puts the firm ahead of its gender diversity target set two years ago for at least 40% of promoted partners to be women.

Of the 21 partners elected in London and New York, meanwhile, 38% identify as from an ethnic minority, easily beating the 15% target. Both sets of targets were also met last year.

“These promotions encapsulate the global nature and diversity of talent we have at Linklaters, across all our practice areas and jurisdictions, underpinned by our strong culture and our commitment to investing in our people,” said Aedamar Comiskey, who took over as the firm’s first woman senior partner in July last year.

The total number of promotions is up by six from last year, when 40% were women. Taken together the 2021/2 promotion rounds represent a marked improvement on 2020, when the firm expressed disappointment on failing to deliver on its then gender diversity target for at least 30% of new partners to be women.

Linklaters also pointed to the geographic spread of its latest cohort, with 59% of the new partners being based outside the UK, drawn from five global regions spread across 14 offices in the UK (17), continental Europe (15), Asia (four), the Middle East (one) and the Americas (four).

In terms of practice areas, 11 were represented, covering the firm’s three divisions of corporate (16), finance (24) and dispute resolution, which only welcomed one new partner.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a marked increase in efforts by the UK’s top law firms to improve their diversity credentials, spurred on by the growing influence of the ESG movement and increasing scrutiny of their records by clients and potential new recruits.

Yesterday, leading London independent Macfarlanes conceded it still had “a way to go” in achieving its diversity ambitions when it unveiled eight new partners, just two of whom are women.

Linklaters’ Magic Circle rival, Slaughter and May, found itself in a similar position last month, when just one of its eight new partners was a women.

Both firms pointed to longer term progress in achieving recently set targets.

The full list of partners

Jonathan Ford, Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group, London
Neil Hoolihan, Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group, Brussels
Klaus von der Linden, Mainstream Corporate, Düsseldorf
Martina Farkas, Mainstream Corporate, Hamburg
Daniel Law, Mainstream Corporate (US), London
Jane Cai, Mainstream Corporate, London
Peter McCabe, Mainstream Corporate, London
Dominic da Gama Campos, Mainstream Corporate, London
Andrew Lynch, Mainstream Corporate, London
Esteban Arza, Mainstream Corporate, Madrid
Nicolas Le Guillou, Mainstream Corporate, Paris
Jamie Coomber, Tax, London
Caroline Borgers, Tax, Brussels
Sonia Cissé, TMT IP, Paris
James Hennah, Dispute Resolution, London
Christopher Hunker. Banking, New York
Philip Lee, Banking, New York
Dior Lin, Banking, Singapore
Marta Domino, Banking, Warsaw
Przemyslaw Lipin, Banking, Frankfurt
Angus Graham, Banking, London
Juliana Leite de Barros, Banking, London
Rohan Saha, Banking, London
Rowland Light, Banking, London
I-Ping Soong, Capital Markets, Hong Kong SAR
Daniel Kwon, Capital Markets, Seoul
Aditi Srivastava, Capital Markets, London
Eliane Dejardin Botelho, Banking/Capital Markets, Luxembourg
Pablo Medina, Capital Markets, Madrid
Ying Fu, Energy & Infrastructure, Hong Kong SAR
Maryam Adamji, Energy & Infrastructure, London
Justin Faye, Energy & Infrastructure, Paris
Raza Naeem, Financial Regulation Group, London
Ngoc-Hong Ma, Financial Regulation Group, Paris
Claire Prospert, Investment Funds, Luxembourg
Matthew Plaskow, Real Estate, London
Siobhan Burton, Real Estate, London
Gabriel Cabello, Real Estate, Madrid
Reem Al Sayegh, Banking, Dubai
Pierre-Emmanuel Perais, Mainstream Corporate, New York
Clara Pang, Mainstream Corporate, New York