Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has promoted 24 attorneys to its tightly managed partnership, an increase of 26% from last year.

The Wall Street firm, which is known for being highly selective in its partnership decisions, made up 19 partners in 2022 and 17 in 2021.

The vast majority – but not all – of the firm's specialist practice groups received at least one partner elevation. Six women were promoted, as opposed to eight in 2022. 

The firm, however, achieved Mansfield Rule certification earlier this year, having met or exceeded pipeline consideration requirements for certification and successfully reached at least 30% diverse lawyer representation in current leadership roles.

The majority of the promotions were in New York where ten attorneys, broadly split between the firm's transactional and disputes offerings, made the grade.

Litigators promoted in the Big Apple included mass torts lawyer Christopher Cox, antitrust specialist Michael Menitove, corporate criminal defence lawyer Chad Silverman, and trial lawyer Tansy Woan, alongside trademark expert Oren Epstein.

Tax lawyer Nazmiye Anna Gökçebay and banking and financial institutions lawyers Matthew Nemeroff and David Passes were also elevated. Evan Hill, a corporate restructuring lawyer, and M&A lawyer Demetrius Warrick completed the New York tally. 

Five partners were promoted in the firm's Washington DC arm: Melinda Han Gamello (tax litigation), Micah Kegley (M&A), Nike Opadiran (energy and infrastructure projects), Charles Ricciardelli (electoral law) and Darren Welch (litigation). 

That same balance between disputes and corporate was reflected in the firm's Californian promotions. In Los Angeles, Winston Hsiao (litigation) and David Niemeyer (M&A) were given the nod, while Emily Reitmeier (litigation) and Peter Jones (M&A) joined the firm's partner ranks in Palo Alto.

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One partner, real estate lawyer Matea Bozja, was promoted in Chicago, while another, Ken Burdon, an investment management specialist, was announced in Boston. Yilin Xu was the firm's only Asia elevation. The Hong Kong-based corporate specialist is relocating to Beijing.

In London, two partners made the grade, the same tally as last year: George Gray, who specialises in private equity, and M&A lawyer Andrea Spadacini. London office head Pranav Trivedi said they were "exceptional lawyers and possess the keen commercial and strategic insights, industry expertise, and leadership skills that our clients expect when they turn to Skadden".

While three London-based lawyers were elevated in 2020 and one in 2019, there were no promotions in 2018 and 2017, and the firm has notably boosted its bench by making seven lateral partner hires since 2019 across its core areas, including disputes, M&A, private equity and fund management, insurance and compliance.

While no disputes lawyer has been promoted to partner in London since 2015, when David Edwards’ elevation was announced, the firm hired arbitration partner Kate Davies KC from Allen & Overy in September last year, replacing David Herlihy, who moved in the opposite direction. One arbitration counsel, Jonathan Egerton-Peters, left the firm to join Steptoe & Johnson as a partner in March.

There were no partner promotions in mainland Europe this year, although the firm boosted its Paris offering earlier this month by hiring private equity partner Nicola Di Giovanni. His hire, alongside Ryan Junck's elevation to head the firm's European disputes team and EU regulatory and compliance groups, was evidence of Skadden refreshing the management of its mainland European teams. 

Last July, London’s Lorenzo Corte was promoted to serve as global head of the firm's transactions group following the death of the much-missed Scott Simpson.