Ashurst has promoted three London lawyers to its partnership as a part of a 12-strong global promotions round.

The appointments, which will take effect on 1 May, are spread across the firm's antitrust, corporate, dispute resolution, energy, finance, infrastructure and real estate practices.

The London promotions are Chris Bates and Tom Mercer in corporate, as well as Ross Mackenzie in competition.

The remaining nine promotions come in the firm's Stockholm, Abu Dhabi, Madrid, Paris and Frankfurt offices. Only one of the 12 new partners is female – Dubai energy lawyer Judith Kim.

Taking the new promotions into account, 45% of Ashurst's partnership is now based outside London, with women making up 14% of the firm's partnership.

Managing partner Simon Bromwich said: "It is a real achievement for the firm to have nearly half of its total partnership outside of the UK. With regards to the male to female ratio, we are working hard to make the pool of talent more balanced in order to be able to make more female promotions in coming years."

The 2011 promotion round represents a slight increase on last year, when Ashurst made up 11 new partners, including six in the City.

Ashurst promotions in full

Antitrust
Ross Mackenzie (London)

Corporate
Chris Bates (London)
Mat Hansson (Stockholm)
Alastair Holland (Abu Dhabi)
Tom Mercer (London)
Jorge Vazquez (Madrid)

Dispute resolution
Daniel Jimenez (Madrid)

Energy
Judith Kim (Dubai)

Finance
Hubert Blanc-Jouvan (Paris)
Sebastian Schoon (Frankfurt)

Infrastructure
David Jardine (Abu Dhabi)

Real estate
Marc Bohne (Frankfurt)