Ropes & Gray promotes London duo in reduced global round

Ropes & Gray has made up two City lawyers as the firm promoted 11 worldwide.

Tax counsel Andrew Howard joined Ropes in 2014 after working for three years as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell.

He will join Ropes’ London partnership alongside real estate associate David Seymour, who trained and worked at Slaughter and May from 2005 to 2012.

Ropes also made up two London lawyers last year – finance lawyers Benoit Lavigne and Robert Haak.

This year was a slightly reduced round for Ropes compared to the 17 lawyers promoted in 2015.

Of the 11 promoted this year, four were based in Boston, while New York saw two lawyers made up. The firm’s Silicon Valley, Washington DC and Hong Kong office each had one promotion.

Just three of the 11 lawyers are female, despite Ropes making up nine women last year out of a total of 17.

The firm’s private equity team saw the highest number of promotions – three in total – while the pharmaceutical and health care practices were also boosted in the US.

US partner promotions rounds are now in full swing, with White & Case and Kirkland & Ellis making up eight and six in London respectively.