Top 60 US law firm O’Melveny has elevated 11 lawyers to partner across the US in its latest promotions round, which is dominated by litigators. 

The round is a slight dip on last year, when the firm elevated 13, and unlike in 2021, when there were promotions in the firm’s offices in Beijing and Shanghai, this cohort includes only US lawyers. 

Eight of the cohort are women, from racial and ethnic minorities, and/or LGBTQ+, according to the firm, which noted that over the past nine years more than two-thirds of its total new partner promotions have been individuals from these groups.

Like last year, the firm’s Los Angeles headquarters welcomed three new partners. Matt Cowan moved up in the white collar defence and corporate investigations practice, Esteban Rodriguez was made up in the consumer class actions team, and employment litigator Jillian Weinstein’s promotion to partner also saw her named firmwide assistant general counsel.

Meantime in Washington DC a pair of civil litigators – Mattie Hutton and Deanna Rice – moved up in the product liability and mass torts and Supreme Court and appellate litigation teams respectively alongside Amanda Santella, who was promoted in the white collar defense & corporate investigations team. 

New York’s pair of promotions went to restructuring specialist Matthew Kremer and Maria von Schack, who specialises in transactions in the energy and infrastructure industries.

Rounding out the hires is a trio of promotions that went to tax lawyer Billy Abbott in Silicon Valley, litigator Tim Heafner in the entertainment and media practice in Century City and IP litigator Mark Liang in San Francisco. 

Bradley Butwin, chair of O’Melveny, said the cohort had distinguished themselves “not only as top litigators and dealmakers but also as champions of our shared values”.

“These outstanding lawyers strengthen our partnership with their diverse backgrounds and perspectives. I look forward to all that this class will achieve in the years to come,” he added. 

The promotions round follows a strong showing by O'Melveny in 2021, when the firm grew both profits per equity partner and revenue by around 10% to $2.7m and $911m respectively. Net income rose 12.2% to $457m. 

The firm managed to grow profits despite a year of rising associate pay and investment in Texas that saw it launch its first new US offices in 20 years in Austin and Dallas with lawyers hired from Thompson & Knight and Norton Rose Fulbright.