Latham & Watkins makes up 23 counsel to partner in latest round
US-heavy cohort follows 44 employees becoming partners in a record-breaking round in January
Latham & Watkins has promoted 23 lawyers to its partnership, a step up from last year’s 17-strong cohort.
The latest round follows the Los Angeles giant, the second largest law firm in the world by revenue, which promoted a record-breaking 44 employees to partners in January.
Six women were included in the final round, or 26% of the total – a decrease from last year when seven of the 17 advocates for the cut were women (41%).
As last year, most of the promotions went to attorneys in the firm’s US offices. Washington DC and New York gained the most new partners, with six and five respectively, while Los Angeles promoted three. Chicago welcomed two and in San Francisco, Betty Pang’s health care supervisory practice saw her make the cut on the health and life sciences team.
London added 10 new partners to Latham’s Associate Promotions round earlier this year but didn’t feature in the last round. Instead, a counsel each has been assembled in Madrid, Milan and Munich, where Ulf Kieker’s promotion to the transaction tax practice follows the firm’s strengthening of its real estate transaction capabilities in Germany with the hiring of partner Carsten Loll from Linklaters last year.
The remainder of the promotions went to lawyers in Asia – Owain Davies was added to the project development and finance team in Singapore, and Michael Hardy and See Wah Wong were welcomed to Hong Kong’s structured finance and capital markets teams respectively.
In terms of practice areas, the firm’s environmental, land and resources teams welcomed the most new partners – four – while the capital markets and banking teams saw three promotions each, and the complex trade disputes and private equity practices two each.
Nine other practice areas — Project Development and Finance, Structured Finance, Transaction Tax, Securities Disputes and Professional Liability, Commercial Defense and Investigations, Intellectual Property Litigation, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Connectivity, Privacy and Information, and Antitrust and Competition Law — saw one attorney make the cut.
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Rich Trobman, Chairman and Managing Partner, said, “We are delighted to congratulate our newest partners and to celebrate their mutual achievements on behalf of our customers and the company. All are dedicated, talented and well-respected team players who will provide exceptional customer service and will ensure our continued growth,” said Rich Trobman, Latham & Watkins Chairman and Managing Partner.
The promotions are valid from March 1st, 2023.
After Latham featured heavily in the last two rounds of promotions, a notable absence this time around was the company’s mergers and acquisitions team.
Latham’s M&A practice had a stellar year in 2021, working on more than 900 deals valued at $604.3 billion, while global M&A activity hit a record $5.9 trillion.
The effort earned the firm second place behind Sullivan & Cromwell in Refinitiv’s global M&A legal advisor rankings by deal value for the year and helped it become the first law firm to break the $5 billion revenue threshold. $.
The company fell to fifth in the rankings last year, working on deals worth $332 billion, on the back of a slowing global M&A market.
The full list of new partners:
Owain Davies (Singapore): Project development and financing practice
Michael Hardy (Hong Kong): Practice for Structured Finance
See Wah Wong (Hong Kong): Capital Markets Practice
José María Alonso (Madrid): Practice for Environment, Land and Resources
Ulf Kieker (Munich): Transaction Tax Practice
Cesare Milani (Milan): Practice for Environment, Land and Resources
John Barber (Chicago): Securities litigation and professional liability practice
Dean Baxtresser (Washington, DC): Commercial criminal law and investigative practice
Charles Cassidy (Washington, DC): Capital Markets Practice
Michael David (Washington, DC): Intellectual property litigation
Sarah Gragert (Washington, DC): Complex Commercial Process Practice
Ryan LaFevers (Chicago): Banking practice
Joshua Marnitz (Los Angeles and Houston): Practice for Environment, Land and Resources
Nima Mohebbi (Los Angeles): Complex Commercial Process Practice
Betty Pang (San Francisco): Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice
Edmond Parhami (New York): Private equity practice
Elizabeth Park (Washington, DC): Practice for Connectivity, Privacy and Information
Aron Potash (Los Angeles): Practice for Environment, Land and Resources
Anna Rathbun (Washington, DC): Antitrust and Competition Practice
Brian Rock (New York) is a member of the Banking Practice
Michael Saliba (New York): Capital Markets Practice
Michael Vardanian (New York): Private equity practice
Ipek Seniz Yakut (New York): Banking Practice