Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has promoted five partners into its London litigation department in this year's promotion round, which sees the City office gain 11 new partners out of a global tally of 23.

The appointments, which cover nine of the firm's 20 offices, are split evenly between the UK and EMEA region (12) and Asia Pacific (11).

This is the second partner promotion round since the Anglo-Australian merger that created the firm in 2012.

Last year, the firm promoted 19 partners, of whom just four were in London and only one heralded from the firm's disputes team.

The five partners making the grade in the London litigation department this year are: Chris Bushell, Andrew Cannon, Natasha Johnson, David Nitek and Gregg Rowan.

The promotions follow the departure of a number of senior London litigation partners in the wake of Herbert Smith's merger with Freehills, including Ted Greeno, who joined Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and Kevin Lloyd, who joined Debevoise & Plimpton.

The remainder of the London promotions are shared between finance and corporate – which each promoted two partners from within their ranks – with singe promotions within the employment and competition teams.

The announcement of HSF's new partners comes hard on the heels of the news that Norton Rose Fulbright has made up 46 lawyers in the first round of promotions since its US merger in June 2013 while Ashurst has made up 15 new partners.

The promotions in full are:

  • Steve Bell – Employment, Pensions and Incentives,Melbourne
  • Thomas Bethel – Finance, London
  • Tim Briggs – Competition, Regulation and Trade, London
  • William Breeze – Finance, London
  • Natalie Bryce – Corporate, Brisbane
  • Chris Bushell – Disputes, London
  • Andrew Cannon – Disputes, London
  • Dominic Geiser – Disputes, Hong Kong
  • Ante Golem – Disputes, Perth
  • Phil Hart – Corporate, Sydney
  • Julie Jankowski – Real Estate, Sydney
  • Natasha Johnson – Disputes, London
  • Nanda Lau – Corporate, Shanghai
  • David Nitek – Disputes, London
  • Matthew Osborne – Projects, Singapore
  • Ruth Overington – Disputes, Melbourne
  • Sarah Pollock – Corporate, London
  • Emma Rohsler – Employment, Pensions and Incentives, Paris
  • Gregg Rowan – Disputes, London
  • Patrick Sands – Disputes, Melbourne
  • Fergus Smith – Finance, Hong Kong
  • Gavin Williams, Corporate, London
  • Christine Young – Employment, Pensions and Incentives, London