Herbies shakes things up

Thursday, March 27th, 2008, 17.10
Herbies shakes things up

Herbert Smith likes to vaunt its diversity statistics and this year it’s really practising what it preaches - a third of its new partners are women. That’s six out of 18.

This is a huge turnaround on the firm’s previous track record: last year just one of the firm’s 10 new partners was female, while in the previous two years they have counted for barely more than a fifth.

But it’s not just on the gender front that Herbies has shaken things up this year - for the first time its international offices have gained the lion’s share of new partners.

Last year all bar one of the firm’s promotions were made in London, with Tim Mak making partner in Hong Kong.

This year, by contrast, just eight of the 18 new partners are in London, while Paris accounted for four of the remainder, Hong Kong and Tokyo bagged two each and the Beijing and Brussels offices received one apiece.

Internationalisation has been top of the firm’s priorities since it formed a tripartite alliance with Dutch firm Stibbe and Germany’s Gleiss Lutz back in 2002, and the firm’s international associates are finally starting to reap the benefits.

Previous Partnership 2008 blogs.

Slaughter and May: ladies, long hours and longevity - Thursday, April 10th
Russell Jones & Walker: More to the core - Tuesday, April 8th
A&O in the Middle East: one new partner, back-up on the way - Monday, April 7th
Clifford Chance: Popham puts his money where his mouth is - Monday, April 7th
Nabarro, Hunton & Hosseini - Friday, April 4th
Addleshaws: managing associates - Friday, April 4th
Nabarro promotions down (under) - Thursday, April 3rd
Hunton & Williams: The London eye - Thursday, April 3rd
The corporate partnership: Superwomen only? - Wednesday, April 2nd
Ashurst promotions: expectation management - Wednesday, April 2nd
Pinsents' Leeds' ladies take the lead - Monday, March 31st
Herbies...continued... - Thursday, March 27th
Herbies shakes things up - Thursday, March 27th
Macfarlanes predicts a good year - Thursday, March 26th
Burges Salmon talks the talk - Wednesday, March 26thTrowers promotions dwindle - Tuesday, March 25th
Wragges' ups the firm's real estate profile - Thursday, March 20th
Olswang's year of change - Thursday, March 20th
Camerons goes East - Wednesday, March 19th
Ince & Co: happy days for men in boats - Tuesday, March 18th
Freshfields refills partnership - Monday, March 17th