Sidley Austin has promoted 29 lawyers to partner in its latest round, a marked step down on last year’s 42-strong cohort and more in line with 2021 when the US firm promoted 28 lawyers to partner. 

The cohort came close to gender parity, with 14 of the promotions going to women – 48% of the total, up from 40% and 43% in the firm’s previous two rounds. 

As with previous years US promotions dominated, with 90% of the cohort working across the firm’s domestic network and the remainder split between the UK and Germany. The lawyers will assume their new roles at the start of next year.

The firm’s commercial litigation and disputes team saw the most promotions, with five, followed by its global finance practice (four), M&A (three), and private equity, investment funds and capital markets (two each). 

Washington DC and the firm’s Chicago headquarters saw the most promotions, with six each. They included disputes duo Jacquelyn Fradette and Ray Mangum in Washington DC and funds lawyer Zach Paterick in Chicago. 

Elsewhere in the US there were five promotions in New York, among them debt finance lawyers Mark Adler and Julie Ann Rosenberg Lamm. The firm also bolstered its M&A and private equity ranks in New York last month when it hired a trio of partners from Paul Weiss. 

There were also multiple promotions in Dallas (four), Century City and Los Angeles (two each). The final US promotion went to Helen Theung in Palo Alto in the capital markets team. 

Meantime in London Sarah Lainchbury was promoted in the commercial disputes and litigation team and Jonathon Hamill was welcomed in the private equity practice. 

Hamill’s promotion follows Sidley making double partner hires from Weil and Paul Weiss earlier this year to boost its London private equity ranks, though the office has seen several partners exit recently, including highly-rated private funds lawyer Mateja Maher, who moved over to Latham & Watkins. Eleanor Shanks also joined Herbert Smith Freehills for the newly-created role of head of international private equity in London. 

The sole promotion outside the US and UK was in Munich, where Jörg Fischer got the nod in the tax team. 

“Our new class of partners reflects our continued growth and emphasises our commitment to providing clients with the most talented lawyers in the industry,” said Yvette Ostolaza, chair of Sidley’s management committee. “As the first class to experience our Built to Lead℠ associate development programme, I’m particularly excited to see them take this next step in their careers.”

Ostolaza became the first woman to lead Sidley and the first Latina lawyer to be appointed to lead a top 10 US law firm when she took over as chair last year. 

Sidley pulled in revenue of $2.92bn in 2022, according to data from American Lawyer, putting it in sixth place in the Am Law 200.