Welcome to this week’s update, where we bring you the latest moves, promotions, and strategic appointments shaping the legal industry.
Partner Moves
Individual
UK & Ireland
Weil hires Kirkland Partner in continued secondaries push
Weil Gotshal & Manges has hired a Partner from Kirkland & Ellis in London, as it continues to build out its global secondaries capability. Charles Cooper-Isow joins the firm’s private equity practice, focusing on secondaries transactions.
Orrick hires Structured Finance Cawalader Partner
Structured Finance Partner Suzanne Bell will be moving to Orrick and leaving Cadwalader, which is gearing up for a merger with Hogan Lovells.
Mayer Brown adds Kirkland Leveraged Finance Partner in London
Mayer Brown has hired Leveraged Finance Partner Sarah Goodwin in London from Kirkland, as it continues to build out its private capital offering in London.
Norton Rose Fulbright welcomes Head of Transfer Pricing to London Tax practice
Norton Rose Fulbright has announced that Dr. Stephanie Pantelidaki has joined the firm as Partner (non-legal) and Head of Transfer Pricing for EMEAPAC, based in London. Stephanie is an economist and joins the firm from Baker McKenzie, where she was a Partner in the tax team.
Linklaters hires CMS Partner for Insurance push in London
Linklaters has hired M&A Partner Owen Ross to bolster its insurance practice in London. Ross joins from CMS, where he was a Partner in the Financial Services team specialising in insurance.
Maureen Daly joins Reddy Charlton LLP
Maureen Daly has joined Reddy Charlton LLP as a Partner. Ms Daly specialises in all areas of intellectual property law and joins from Pinsent Masons.
Harper Macleod welcomes Jacqueline Cook as planning Partner
Harper Macleod has announced the appointment of new Partner Jacqueline Cook to its planning team. Jacqueline Cook joins from Burges Salmon in Edinburgh.
Europe
Norton Rose Fulbright continues to expand Paris Real Estate practice with new Partner
Norton Rose Fulbright has announced that Real Estate Partner Diane Le Chevallier has joined its Paris office. Diane Le Chevallier joins the firm after nine years at De Pardieu Brocas Maffei.
Middle East
Stephenson Harwood is building its Middle East insurance litigation capability with the relocation of Partner Richard Hugg to the Dubai office.
Team
Ropes & Gray Expand European Private Capital Platform with hires from local firm Giovannelli
Ropes & Gray announced that leading Private Equity and M&A Partner Fabrizio Scaparro and experienced Private Equity Counsel Paola Pagani have joined the firm’s Milan office. They both join from Giovannelli e Associati where Scaparro was a Founding Partner.
Bird & Bird strengthens Employment team in France with double Partner hire
Bird & Bird boosts its Employment team in Paris with two new partners – Philippe Thomas and Thibault Meiers. They both join from Dechert.
Promotions & Appointments
A&O Shearman makes up nine Partners in London
A&O Shearman has unveiled its Partner promotions round for 2026, with nine lawyers elevated in London and four in the US. The numbers in London and the US are identical to last year when 33 lawyers globally also made the cut.
Eversheds Sutherland announces 25 promotions to Partner for 2026
Eversheds Sutherland (International) announced 25 partner promotions for 2026, up from 23 Partner promotions in 2025.
Freshfields doubles down on US in record Partner promotions round
Freshfields has announced its largest-ever Partner promotions round, making up 43 new Partners globally. It’s a significant level up from last year’s 25 partner promotions.
Irwin Mitchell announces firm-wide Promotions for 2026
Irwin Mitchell has announced its latest annual promotions with 12 being promoted to Partner, down from 14 last year.
New Head of Mishcon de Reya Insolvency and Restructuring Group
Radford Goodman has been appointed as Head of the Insolvency and Restructuring Group. Radford joined Mishcon in 2024 from Norton Rose Fulbright, where he was a Partner for 15 years.
Firm and Market Activity
Office Openings & Closings
Linklaters to Close 10-Lawyer Office in Hamburg, Germany
Linklaters is closing its eight-year-old Hamburg office as it continues a broader pullback from underperforming European markets.
Gilson Gray opens fourth Edinburgh office
Gilson Gray has opened a new office at 14 Rutland Square, joining its existing city centre locations at 6, 25 and 29 Rutland Square.
RPC confirms location of new City HQ
The firm will take sole occupation of 10 Devonshire Square, currently home to WeWork, which spans more than 67,000 sq ft across five floors and includes a private roof terrace. RPC says the space will be fully redesigned to support hybrid working and client meetings.
Pamela Keely establishes Gantly Keely Solicitors
Pamela Keely has established Gantly Keely Solicitors in Bray, following the acquisition of Wicklow’s established private law practice Rosemary Gantly Solicitors.
Mergers & Alliances
Partners approve historic Hogan Lovells Cadwalader combination
Partners at Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft have voted in favour of what has been described as the largest law firm combination in history. Hogan Lovells Cadwalader will have annual revenue of more than $3.6 billion and a team of 3,100 lawyers across 18 countries, becoming one of the top firms globally by revenue and size.
Perkins Coie and Ashurst Partnerships Approve Combination to Form Ashurst Perkins Coie
Perkins Coie and Ashurst announced today that the partnerships of both firms have voted overwhelmingly to approve their proposed combination. The approval follows consultation from both firms and reflects strong support for the combination of two law firms with highly complementary geographic reach, sector depth, and practice strength.
Winston Taylor Incorporates in US in Shift Away From Legacy UK LLPs
The merged firm joins an elite club of U.S. legal giants that operate their international arms through Delaware-incorporated structures; pre-merger, both Winston & Strawn’s London operation and Taylor Wessing were registered as conventional U.K. LLPs.
Taylor Wessing’s German arm still seeking perfect UK partner as mid-tier talks fall through
Taylor Wessing’s German arm, which is not set to be joining the UK alliance’s Winston & Strawn deal, is understood to have approached a number of UK mid-tier firms about a tie-up, with no deal agreed as yet.
Financial Results
Latham Breaks Records as Partner Pay Hits $8.65M
A standout year for Latham & Watkins, with record profits, surging revenues and headline mandates driving performance at the very top of the market. Key numbers: revenue: $8.3 billion (first time past $8bn); PEP: $8.65 million (up 21.3%); revenue per lawyer: $2.2 million (up 14%); and Lawyer headcount: 3,724 (up 4%).
Ropes & Gray releases 2026 financial reports
Revenue grew by 9.4% and revenue per lawyer rose 8.3% in 2025 at Ropes & Gray.
Harbottle & Lewis has become the second of the City independent firms to announce its financial results for 2025/26. The firm posted revenue of £58.3m for the financial year, up 8.3 per cent on the £53.8m of 2024/25 and around 130 per cent on the £25.2m of 2015/16. Harbottles has not yet revealed other metrics, but in 2024/25 net profit was £22.5m and average profit per equity partner was £752,000. Its profit margin that year was 41.8 per cent, second only to pensions boutique Sackers among the 13 City independents in the UK51-100 bracket of the UK200.
Milbank crosses $2bn turnover as London growth gathers pace
Milbank has posted an 11 per cent revenue uplift in London, as the New York firm saw its global turnover jump past the $2bn mark for the first time. The firm reported London revenue of $366.2m for the financial year 2025, up from $327m the previous year, marking an increase of more than 11 per cent.
Sidley’s hiring strategy pays off as City revenue leaps by a third
Sidley Austin’s London office has increased its revenue by 32 per cent, as the US firm reaps the rewards of an increasingly aggressive hiring strategy on both sides of the Atlantic. The firm saw its London revenue increase by 31.9 per cent to $299m. The rise reinforces a pattern of consistent double-digit expansion, marking the 13th year of consecutive revenue growth in the City.
Market Commentary
Legora hires Jude Law as global expansion accelerates
Legora today launched a new global brand campaign, featuring Jude Law, as it accelerates the international expansion of its collaborative legal AI platform. The campaign marks a new phase in Legora’s growth strategy and maturity, as the company continues to scale its presence in key legal markets, such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the EU, and drives deeper adoption among leading law firms and in-house legal teams.
The Lawyer Awards 2026: Shortlist unveiled
The shortlist for this year’s The Lawyer Awards is now live, with law firms, barristers’ chambers and in-house departments all nominated for prizes celebrating team and individual excellence.
Innovation and Culture
Technology & Innovation
OpenAI signs for first permanent London office
OpenAI has signed for its first permanent office in London at Endurance Land’s Regent Quarter scheme in King’s Cross. The company has taken 88,500 sq ft across Jahn Court and the Brassworks Building. OpenAI currently employs around 200 people in London and the new office, which is expected to open in 2027, will have capacity for up to 544 people.
Simmons brings students into the AI era with new internship
Simmons & Simmons has welcomed eight students to its new AI law internship, in what the firm says is the UK’s first dedicated programme of its kind. The two-week internship, which began this week in London, gives students hands-on experience working with the firm’s AI team across both legal and technical projects.