Five Clifford Chance (CC) partners have put their names forward to compete for the role of senior partner at the magic circle firm.

The quintet will go head to head, to succeed current postholder Malcolm Sweeting at the beginning of next year.

Among the hopefuls are former London managing partner David Bickerton, former Europe head Yves Wehrli, insurance head Katherine Coates, former capital markets chief David Dunnigan and continental Europe disputes chief Jeroen Ouwehand.

Former head of litigation Jeremy Sandelson, who had been widely tipped as a likely contender, will not be running.

Should Coates win the election, she would be the first woman to hold the senior partner title at CC. She is head of both the magic firm's financial institutions group in London and its global insurance sector group, and in 2016 completed the second of two terms on the firm's partnership council.

Bickerton stepped down as London managing partner at the end of 2017 after completing the maximum of two terms, and was succeeded City finance head Michael Bates, while Wehrli ran unsuccessfully against Matthew Layton in 2013 in the race to become the firm's managing partner.

Ouwehand, who started his career at the firm in 1992 and made partner in 2000, has been Amsterdam managing partner since November 2015, while Dunningan was head of capital markets for twelve years until 2014.

Sweeting took over the senior partner role in 2011 from Stuart Popham, another banking and finance partner, after seeing off competition from German M&A and corporate finance partner Daniela Weber-Rey, and City tax partner Jonathan Elman.

The vote for the final winner will take place towards the end of this month.