Freshfields leads magic circle promotions round with 18 getting the nod

Of the new partners, six come from the magic circle firm’s London office. Only two London-based partners were made up at the same time last year.

However, the continuing downturn in corporate activity is reflected by the fact that the practice area is home to just four of the 18 new partners, compared with nine out of last year’s 14.

Corporate is still the best represented area, along with dispute resolution. Antitrust, competition and trade hosts three new partners, with two each coming from employment, finance and tax.

Four of the new Freshfields partners are women, with two of those based in London.

Although the total figure is up on last year, it is till seven fewer than the 25 new partners who made the grade in 2008.

In a statement chief executive Ted Burke (pictured) said: “We’re very happy to announce the election of our new partners. Each is an outstanding lawyer and, as a group, they represent a broad range of practice areas and offices.”

Freshfields is the first magic circle firm to announce its partner promotions this year. Addleshaw Goddard has made up five new partners, Wragge & Co has promoted two associates, while Olswang and Slaughter and May have two new partners each.

The full list of Freshfields’ new partners is as follows:

Antitrust, cmpetition and trade

Tom Ensign (Washington DC)
Uta Itzen (Dusseldorf)
Bruce McCulloch (Washington DC)

Corporate

Innokenty Ivanov (Moscow)
Ralph Kogge (Munich)
Luigi Verga (Milan)
Tim Wilmot (London)

Dispute resolution

Giuseppe Curto (Milan)
Boris Kasolowsky (Frankfurt)
Noah Rubins (Paris)
Tom Snelling (London)

Employment, pensions and benefits

Charles Magoffin (London)
René Döring (Cologne)

Finance

Catherine Balmond (London)
Andrew Heathcote (Hong Kong)

IP/IT

Andrew Craig (London)

Tax

Jill Gatehouse (London)
Tobias Teufel (Frankfurt)