Covington, Kirkland up City partner promotions

US firms Covington & Burling and Kirkland & Ellis have both announced their partnership promotion rounds, with Covington making record promotions in London.

Globally Covington made up 12 new partners, Kirkland 67.

Covington made two promotions in London, with Gregor Frizzell in corporate and Daniel Cooper in the privacy & data security practices. This follows a round last year in which Covington made no promotions in London.

At Kirkland in London, five lawyers were promoted: Sophie Allen was in the tax team, Pierfrancesco Carbone in corporate, Kate Downey, Jennifer Kapusniak and Kate Simpson in private funds.

Only around 4 per cent of Covington & Burling's total lawyers are based in London, yet this year Covington London saw a total of 17 per cent of promotions.

Kirkland & Ellis' London office employs around 6 per cent of the firm's total number of lawyers globally, and saw 7 per cent Kirkland promotions.

Total promotions at the firms have increased overall. At Covington this year the total number of promotions had doubled since last year. Kirkland last year had made up 5 fewer lawyers to partner.