Squire Sanders Hammonds has announced its first partner promotions since the firm's transatlantic merger, with 18 lawyers made up to the partnership.

The bulk of the new promotions come in the UK, with five in the City and two in Leeds. In legacy Hammonds' last promotion round, no London lawyers were made up in a global round of eight.

The remaining 11 promotions in this year's round are spread across the firm's Cleveland, Phoenix, Prague, Columbus, Madrid and Brussels offices.

Eight of the 18 new partners are female, while broken down by practice area, the bulk of the promotions are in the corporate transactions practice, which gains five new partners, with antitrust and competition gaining three and taxation and benefits, litigation and financial services all gaining two each.

Seven of the promotions took effect on 1 January and the rest will be effective from 1 May.

Squire Sanders chair and chief executive officer James Maiwurm (pictured) said: "It's very positive – they're a good group of people. It's a bigger number of promotions than we've had in the past but that's because we're a much bigger firm since the merger and this is a particularly strong group of very talented individuals.

"It's a nice and diverse group from different practice areas, different office and different backgrounds – whether it be legacy Hammonds or legacy Squire Sanders. We went through a very rigorous process like we always do and we feel this group will improve the firm."

"We aim to continue to grow – through internal promotions and externally as well. The market conditions can be a little bit tricky at times but there's a lot of positive vibrations at the firm right now and we're very upbeat about the future."

Partner promotions as of 1 January

Ann LaFrance: Communications, London
Michael Cullers: Taxation and benefits, Cleveland
Sarah Rathke: Litigation, Cleveland
Matthew Holman: Corporate transactions, finance and governance, Phoenix
Sara Regan: Litigation, Phoenix
Rostislav Pekar: International dispute resolution, Prague
Aaron Seamon: Financial services, Columbus

Partner promotions as of 1 May

Kirsty Bartlett: Pensions, London
Claire Scott-Priestley: Corporate transactions, finance and governance, London
Annabel Mace: Labor and employment, London
Caroline Waite: Corporate transactions, finance and governance, London
Richard Hunt: Corporate transactions, finance and governance, Leeds
Matthew Ingram: Financial services, Leeds
Oliver Geiss: Antitrust and competition, Brussels
Cristiana Spontoni: Antitrust and competition, Brussels
Guillaume Taillandier: Antitrust and competition, Brussels
Anthony Van der Hauwaert: Corporate transactions, finance and governance, Brussels
Gonzalo de Frutos: Taxation and benefits, Madrid