DLA Piper has promoted 46 lawyers to its partnership around the world, with just four lawyers making the grade in London, down from eight last year.

Overall, the firm has made nine UK partner promotions, with three in Sheffield and one each in Birmingham and Liverpool.

Seventeen of the new partners are based in the US, with 12 across continental Europe, four in the UAE, two in China and two in Australia.

By practice, corporate has received the most promotions this year, with 10 in total, followed by litigation and regulatory with nine, finance and projects with seven and employment with five.

The proportion of women has fallen to 24% in this year's round, down from 29% last year, with 11 women made up this year compared to 14 last year.

The firm promoted 48 lawyers to partner last year and 44 the year before. Last year, 14 of the new partners were based in the UK, with eight in London and two each in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.

DLA co-CEO Simon Levine said: "These lawyers represent the next generation of DLA Piper and their dedication and commitment remains integral to the firm's success and our continued ability to deliver first-class legal advice to our clients."

The firm has recently closed some of its smaller offices, shutting Tbilisi in Georgia, Berlin in Germany and Canberra in Australia in the last month.

DLA Piper partner promotions in full

Amsterdam Pieter-Paul Terpstra, corporate

Atlanta John Ducat, real estate Daniel Simon, restructuring

Austin Karen Nelson, litigation

Beijing Windson Li, tax Vivian Liu, corporate

Birmingham Emma Phillips, employment

Boston Brian Hochleutner, real estate Jessica Wilson, litigation

Bucharest Radu Balas, litigation and regulatory

Cologne Eva Einfeldt, employment Guido Kleve, litigation and regulatory

Dubai Keith Bullen, finance and projects Wissam Dagher, litigation Paul McViety, finance and projects Suzannah Newboult, litigation and regulatory

Frankfurt Bjorn Enders, tax Sascha Morgenroth, tax

Liverpool Andrew McIlhinney, employment

London Chris Chan, real estate Patrick Mitchell, IPT Edward Shaw, litigation and regulatory Richard Skipper, finance and projects

Luxembourg Xavier Guzman, finance and projects

Miami Jeffrey Musaffi, corporate and securities

Milan Danilo Surdi, corporate

New York Ryan Moreno, finance Maruti Narayan, tax

North Virginia Cathryn Le Regulski, labour and employment

Perth Jock Campbell, litigation and regulatory Rhys Davies, finance and projects

Philadelphia Richard Cruz, intellectual property

Rome Vincenzo La Malfa, finance and projects

San Diego Jon Olsen, corporate and securities

Seattle Andrew Ramiro Escobar, litigation Tyler Hollenback, corporate and securities

Sheffield Mark Keeling, real estate Amanda Pilkington, IPT David Beech, corporate

Silicon Valley Jennifer Gallo, corporate and securities

St. Petersburg Natalia Vygovskaya, corporate

Vienna Armin Hendrich, litigation and regulatory

Warsaw Bartosz Matusik, tax

Washington DC John Nading, intellectual property Christopher Steelman, government affairs