US powerhouses Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Latham & Watkins have announced their new partnership promotions ahead of the new financial year, increasing their partner numbers by 8 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.

Three of the 14 new promotions at Cleary were based in London, the most the office has seen in recent years, but only one partner was added to the London office of Latham, which announced 25 new partners and one counsel. The firm said this was because Brett Cassidy was the only associate in London with enough years’ PQE to be considered.

Instead, Latham’s Asia offices saw three new partners, with two in Hong Kong and one in Singapore. Latham’s biggest office, New York, bagged the highest number of new partners with five.

The New York headquarters of Cleary also saw the most promotions, with two counsel and three partners.

Both Cleary and Latham enjoyed double-digit profit increases for the last financial year, with average profits per equity partner at $1.97m (£1.04m) and $1.6m (£848,000) respectively.

The two firms are first off the mark among US firms in announcing their new partners. Promotions at US firms tend to be either in anticipation of the end of the US financial year, which follows the calendar year, or in January once all the figures are in.

It is understood that Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw and Weil Gotshal & Manges will also promote partners before the end of the year.