Allen & Overy (A&O) and Slaughter and May have both announced their partnership promotions, with A&O making up 33 associates to partner – its highest-ever number of promotions.

More than half of A&O's promotions, effective as of 1 May, are outside London, covering 14 offices and five practice areas. The numbers are significantly up on the last two years, with the firm making up just 14 partners in 2005 and 21 in 2004.

The 2006 promotions include 15 in London, 11 in continental Europe, two in New York and five across Asia. Fourteen of the promotions are in the firm's much-vaunted banking practice, including six promotions in London, and 10 are in corporate, of which half are in London. The firm also made up two litigation associates, four in capital markets and three in tax.

The promotions will take A&O's total partnership to 453 when they come into effect, compared to 444 in 2005 and 454 in 2004.

The promotions will also head off criticism over the last 12 months that A&O was failing to promote its talented associates to partnership. The magic circle firm also recently responded to calls to overhaul its fixed bonus scheme to bring in a stronger merit-based element.

Slaughters, meanwhile, has promoted eight associates to the partnership, compared to six last year. These promotions, all in the UK, comprise three in corporate, two in commercial real estate and one each in dispute resolution, pensions and tax. They take Slaughters' partnership to 129, 118 of which are in London.

Slaughters' practice partner David Frank said: "We do not make any reference to the level of business activity. We had eight good candidates so we made up eight new partners. I suspect we are promoting faster than many of our rivals as our partnership is smaller."

The dual announcement came in the same week that magic circle duo Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters announced their promotions. Freshfields is making up 11 partners, its lowest round for four years, compared to 32 at Linklaters.