Norton Rose Fulbright has announced a 49-strong partner promotions class, a considerable rise on last year’s total of 36, and close to parity with 2022’s total of 54.

The promotions, which go live in January, have been made across 10 practice areas, two more than last year. Dispute resolution, which includes litigation, topped the partner promotions list with 16 lawyers, four more than last year’s total of 12. 

Corporate, M&A and securities saw 12 promotions, two more than the previous year, while banking and finance had five lawyers promoted. There were four promotions in intellectual property, three in employment and labour law, and two each in environmental law, real estate, restructuring and insolvency, and tax, and a sole promotion in projects. 

The promotions span 22 of the firm’s 54 offices, with 15 in the firm’s Canadian offices and 14 in the United States making up the lion’s share of promotions. 

Seven solicitors made partner in London, two more than last year, namely litigators Amy Armitage and Claire Irwin, corporate lawyers Andrew Davies and Nari Ertem, banking lawyer Tudor Plapcianu, environmental lawyer Lucy Bruce Jones, and projects specialist Melusi Dlamini. 

Just three lawyers were promoted from the firm’s network in mainland Europe: two in Germany – Frankfurt-based corporate lawyer Stefan Kutscheid and disputes specialist Nikolas Smirra, who works out of the Munich office – and one in France, Paris-based banking and finance specialist Sebastien Allain.

There were three promotions apiece in Australia and South Africa and two in the Middle East.

For the fifth year, women account for more than 40% of the firm’s partner promotions (20 of 49), the first such round overseen by US managing partner Jeff Cody and EMEA head Peter Scott as interim global CEOs following Gerry Pecht’s surprise retirement in September. 

Scott was a member of the City of London’s socio-economic diversity taskforce, which reported at the end of last year, while Farmida Bi, the firm’s EMEA chair, spoke on the subject at the IBA conference in Paris. 

Last month, NRF lost four partners to top-tier rivals. Co-head of data protection, privacy and cybersecurity, Ffion Flockhart, moved across to Allen & Overy, along with cyber disputes specialist Charlie Weston-Simons. Linklaters hired global head of risk advisory and chief client officer Jane Caskey to launch a global risk advisory practice while corporate crime partner Pamela Reddy joined Latham & Watkins 

The full list of promotions
Banking and finance
Edward Anido, Ottawa
Sebastien Allain, Paris
Jean-Philippe Pelletier, Québec City
Tudor Plapcianu, London
Reggie Wilson, Houston

Corporate, M&A and securities
Roger Bill, Montréal
Jonathan Burton, Dubai
Andrew Davies, London
Nari Ertem, London
Nader Hasan, Toronto
Connor Kense, Calgary
Stefan Kutscheid, Frankfurt
Eric Malysa, Vancouver
Anastasia Slivker, New York
Teerin Vanikieti, Bangkok
Ryan Waggoner, New York
Sam Zadeh, Toronto

Employment and labour
Laura Macfarlane, Cape Town *
Heather Sherrod, Houston
Chanelle Wong, Vancouver

Environmental 
Lucy Bruce Jones, London
Jacqueline Plant, Melbourne **

Intellectual property
Talbot Hansum, Austin
Jeff Kang, Toronto
Thomas Orsak, Austin
Andrea Shannon, Houston

Litigation and disputes
Emily Ambrose, Minneapolis
Amy Armitage, London
Ted Brook, Toronto
Andy Crowder, Minneapolis
Claire Irwin, London
Lucy L’Hirondelle, Calgary
Sarah McCalla, Vancouver
Ryan Meltzer, Austin
Raphaëlle Mignault, Québec City
Dominique Noël, Montréal
Maria Panos, Sydney **
Jayesh Patel, Los Angeles
Peter Rogers, Cape Town *
Nikolas Smirra, Munich
Aarti Thadani, Dubai
Devin Wagner, Houston

Projects
Melusi Dlamini, London

Real estate
Samantha Petersen, Johannesburg *
Ammad Waheed, Houston

Restructuring and insolvency
Julie Harrison, Houston
Kellie Link, Perth **

Tax
Catherine Dubé, Montréal
Ben Roth, New York

* Director in South Africa
** Subject to issue of principal practicing certificate by 1 January