UK Magic Circle firm Linklaters has elevated 27 lawyers to partner in its latest promotion round, 11 of them women, ensuring the firm met its annual target for at least 40% of promoted partners to be female for a fourth consecutive year.

The number of promotions is a drop on last year’s cohort, when 41 were elevated to the partnership, including 17 women.

The firm’s corporate practice saw the most promotions this year with eight, followed by four in its antitrust and foreign investment practice, three in energy and infrastructure and two apiece in banking, capital markets, litigation and tax. There were also promotions in its employment and incentives practice, as well as TMT/IP and client solutions and AI.

The UK dominated the round, with 14 made up in London including capital markets lawyer Leanne Banfield and client solutions and AI lawyer Shilpa Bhandarkar. Mainland Europe was the second largest region, with 10 promotions spread across the firm’s Brussels, Düsseldorf, Lisbon, Paris and Luxembourg offices. Two lawyers made the cut in Asia – energy and infrastructure lawyer Xylia Sim in Singapore and TMT/IP lawyer Alaister Johnson, also in Singapore. The round was completed with one promotion in the US – antitrust and foreign investment lawyer John Eichlin in New York. 

The firm said it also met its target for at least 15% of promoted partners in the UK and US being from under-represented minority ethnic groups.

Meantime, 49 lawyers were made up to counsel, including 13 in London and another – banking lawyer Alice Nolan – who will split her time between London and Brussels. In total, the counsel promotions were spread across 14 countries and 11 practice areas. There was also a counsel promotion at Linklaters’ Chinese joint operation firm Zhao Sheng Law firm. All promotions come into effect on 1 May.

Aedamar Comiskey, senior partner and chair at Linklaters, said: “I am inspired by the exceptional and diverse talent we have across our firm. Huge congratulations to our newly promoted partners and counsel. They are all outstanding in what they do and how they do it – team players who go the extra mile to deliver the best outcomes for our clients and our people. This is a key milestone in their careers, and we look forward to seeing them achieve great things.”

Linklaters’ latest promotions follows Magic Circle rival Slaughter and May’s round earlier this month, where five were made up to partner.

To see the full list of Linklaters’ partner and counsel promotions, click here.