Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton's London office has received half of the new partners made up in the firm's latest global promotions round.

The US firm has made up four partners around the world, including City-based corporate lawyers Sam Bagot and Mike Preston.

Bagot, who specialises in public and private M&A, has worked on several high-profile deals including acting for the financial advisers to Cadbury on the company's acquisition by Kraft.

Preston, who is currently temporarily working from the firm's Hong Kong office, focuses on M&A and private equity.

Cleary management said that the appointments are a vindication of the expansion of the firm's English law offering.

Managing partner Mark Walker commented: "These lawyers continue our tradition of internationalism, which is more important than ever in today's global market."

The other two promotions come in the firm's New York and Moscow offices, where Roger Cooper (litigation) and Yulia Solomakhina (corporate) are based.

The new appointments, which take effect on 1 January 2011, will take the firm's total partner headcount to 195.

The firm has also promoted four lawyers to the rank of counsel – Jaewoo Lee (Paris, corporate), Michele Piergiovanni (Brussels, competition), Olivier Loizon (Paris, litigation) and Andrew Weaver (New York, litigation).