Bird & Bird is set to make up 12 new partners in its annual promotions round, marking a significant increase on last year, when just two lawyers were made up.

All of the new partners are in Europe, including four in Germany, while in London, three lawyers will join the partnership as of 1 May.

The City trio are commercial lawyer Ian Edwards, who has a background is in the IT sector, intellectual property (IP) lawyer Jennifer Jones, and Colin Kendon, who already heads up the firm' UK employee incentives and benefits team.

The four promotions in Germany include two new partners in Hamburg, one in Frankfurt and one in Duesseldorf. The firm is also making up two new partners in Helsinki and one apiece in The Hague and Brussels, as well as the firm's Prague and Bratislava office head, Ivan Sagal.

Broken down by practice are, four of the promotions are in IP, while two are are IT-focused commercial lawyers. The firm's finance, corporate, regulatory, employee benefits and dispute resolution practices are also represented.

Bird & Bird CEO David Kerr (pictured) commented: "It's always great to see our talented lawyers develop and we're delighted to make these promotions. These appointments demonstrate the strength of expertise we have in our sector groups and across our international offices.."

The firm said the appointments bring the total number of partner promotions for this financial year to 15, after also making three promotions out of season.

The out of season promotions were all in the firm's Asian offices – corporate lawyer John Koh in Hong Kong, who was promoted earlier this year, and Joyce Ang and Navin Joseph Lobo in Singapore, who were made partner in August and focus on IP and dispute resolution respectively.

Bird & Bird partner promotions in full

Ian Edwards, London, commercial (IT sector)
Ulrike Gruebler, Hamburg, IP (media sector)
Lars Huisman, The Hague, IP (life sciences and agro/food sectors)
Jennifer Jones, London, IP (life sciences sector)
Michael Juenemann, Frankfurt, banking and finance
Colin Kendon, head of the UK employee incentives & benefits team
Oliver Koester, Hamburg, corporate/restructuring (automotive sector)
Marc Martens, Brussels, regulatory practice work (life sciences and energy sectors)
Jesper Nevalainen, Helsinki, commercial (IT sector)
Mikko Rajala, Helsinki, dispute resolution
Ivan Sagal, head of Prague and Bratislava, corporate and banking and finance law (energy sector)
Anna Wolters, Dusseldorf, IP (life sciences sector)