Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has become the first magic circle firm to announce its 2012 partner promotions, with five London lawyers made up in a 20-strong round.

The new City partners are corporate lawyer Doug Smith, dispute resolution specialist Matthew Bruce and finance trio Ryan Beckwith, Geoff O'Dea and Michael Steele.

Four of the promotions have been made in Hong Kong, with three in Paris, two each in New York and Frankfurt and one apiece in Dubai, Vienna, Duesseldorf and Amsterdam.

Broken down by practice area, the bulk of the promotions – nine – are in corporate, followed by five in finance, four in dispute resolution and one each in tax and intellectual property.

The round is the same size as last year, when Freshfields was also the first magic circle firm to announce its annual partner promotions. Last year nine of the 20 were promoted in London, while three of the new partners this year are female, marking a slight increase on the two women made up last year. The promotions are effective from 1 May.

The news comes after Addleshaw Goddard, Trowers & Hamlins and Olswang all announced their promotions yesterday (27 March) with six, 11 and five partners made up respectively.

Freshfields senior partner Will Lawes said: "We are very excited to have another talented group from a wide range of offices joining the partnership. We are sure that they will all help us drive forward the business of the firm for years to come."

Freshfields partner promotions in full

Corporate
Doug Bacon (New York)
Charles Ching (Hong Kong)
Edward Freeman (Hong Kong)
Michael Hilton (Dubai)
Tobias Larisch (Duesseldorf)
Yannick Piette (Paris)
Farid Sigari-Majd (Vienna)
Doug Smith (London)
Patrick Tardivy (Paris)

IP/IT
Mark Parsons (Hong Kong)

Dispute resolution
Matthew Bruce (London)
Georgia Dawson (Hong Kong)
Gabrielle Gould (New York)
Martina de Lind van Wijngaarden (Frankfurt)

Finance
Ryan Beckwith (London)
Mario Huether (Frankfurt)
Mandeep Lotay (Amsterdam)
Geoff O'Dea (London)
Michael Steele (London)