Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has announced its 2012 partner promotions with two made up in the City.

The US firm has promoted 16 lawyers to the partnership effective 1 January 2012, doubling the eight it made up last year.

Jinal Shah has been promoted in the corporate group in London, while the second City promotion has not yet been announced with the firm awaiting regulatory approval.

The remaining promotions fall across Orrick's San Francisco, New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles offices.

Broken down by practice area, litigation received the most new partners with five made up in the group, while three lawyers were promoted in finance, two in intellectual property (IP) and one apiece in the corporate, tax, insurance, employment and compensation and benefits practices.

Orrick has seen a number of partner departures in recent months, including the departure of IP partner Steven Adkins, announced this week, who is set to join Allen & Overy in Washington DC.

Meanwhile, former London head Martin Bartlam is leaving to join DLA Piper after tendering his resignation last month and London finance partner Elisabeth Gaunt announced her departure for Taylor Wessing in January this year.

However, the US firm has also been adding to its City base with a number of partner hires in the last quarter of 2011, including Mayer Brown trio Simon Willis, Matthew Lawson and former co-head of capital markets Stephanie Bates announced in December last year.

Partner promotions in full:

London

  • Jinal Shah (corporate)

New York

  • Sarah Downie (compensation and benefits)
  • Elyse Echtman (litigation)
  • John Ewald (litigation)
  • Richard Jacobsen (litigation)
  • Richard Martinelli (IP)
  • Nikiforos Mathews (finance)
  • Kevin Roche (finance)

San Francisco

  • Brooke Abola (finance)
  • Warrington Parker (IP)
  • Eric Wall (tax)
  • Michael Weil (employment)

Washington DC

  • Antony Kim (litigation)
  • Alexander Lathrop (insurance)
  • Los Angeles
  • Khai LeQuang (litigation)

Related