Top 40 UK law firm RPC has promoted 10 lawyers to its global partnership, with three also promoted to of counsel.

Its latest promotion round was in line with its 2021 intake, when 10 lawyers were also made partner. This year’s cohort saw women make up 50% of the new partners, up from 30% last year. Those include London-based lawyers Sarah Mountain, Charlotte Henschen and Felicity Strong, and Bristol-based Sian Morgan and Fiona Hahlo. 

James Miller, RPC’s managing partner, said: “We have added 14 new partners to the global partnership over the last 12 months, demonstrating that growth is singularly focused on ensuring we have the talent we need to support all of our clients' commercial needs, whether opportunities and challenges.”

Mountain has been with the firm since April 2020, joining from Wedlake Bell, where she spent almost nine years. She specialises in IP and technology matters and sits in the firm’s commercial group. Henschen is also a member of the firm’s commercial group, specialising in commercial and banking litigation. She joined RPC in 2015 from Ashurst. Strong is a member of the insurance group and focuses on construction. She has been at the firm for a decade, having joined from CMS where she was a trainee solicitor.

Morgan has almost three decades of insurance experience, specialising in general liability and medical matters. She joined the firm in 2015 from national firm Bevan Brittan. Hahlo also focuses on general liability and medical matters and has been with RPC for almost 19 years.

The rest of the 2022 cohort include professional and financial risks lawyer George Smith in Bristol and London-based lawyers Alex Vakil, Ed Colville, Alex Wilson and Alex Almageur. Vakil and Wilson both focus on media, while Colville is a corporate lawyer and Almageur specialises in political risk and casualty. 

The three of counsel promotions are all based in London and include Whitney Simpson, whose practice focuses on non-contentious consumer finance and payments-related matters,  commercial disputes lawyer Matthew Evans and competition law specialist Melanie Musgrave.

Miller added: “All 13 individuals – which include six men and seven women – have already contributed a great deal to the firm by exemplifying genuine commitment to collegiality and collaboration.”

A number of RPC’s larger UK rivals have announced bumper promotion rounds recently, notably DLA Piper, which last week unveiled a 74-strong round that almost achieved gender parity. 

Herbert Smith Freehills unveiled its own bumper crop last week, with 14 out of the 34 partner slots going to women lawyers. 

The list of UK firms to have announced their partner promotions in recent weeks includes Kennedys, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Clifford Chance, Stephenson Harwood, Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Clyde & Co and Slaughter and May.