Clifford Chance (CC) is in the midst of the first round of voting to elect its new senior partner, as partners cast their ballots to decide on a successor to Malcolm Sweeting.

The first round of voting began earlier this week, and will close at the end of the day on Monday (5 November).

The five partners in the running to replace Sweeting 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.

If any contender secures 50% of the votes in the first round, they will take the role automatically, as Sweeting did when he was first elected to the post in 2010.

Manifestos for the five candidates were sent out to partners during October, after which a series of election hustings were held across CC's office network.

Themes touched on by candidates during the hustings included CC's use of technology – a priority area for the firm, which has recently been piloting new artificial intelligence software that will help work out how long lawyers should be spending on tasks, in order to better predict pricing.

The new senior partner will work in tandem with managing partner Matthew Layton, who took up a second four-year term on 1 May this year following an uncontested election.