As we near the end of the year, there have been a flurry of Partner promotion announcements from the top AM Law firms. Overall, promotion class sizes have decreased for the second year in a row. But is this a dramatic shift or an expected pivot in strategy?

Using publicly-available data from Pirical Legal Professionals (PLP), we've looked into a few of the trends among the promoted Partners from 2024 so far and how the promotion classes compare to previous years.

After a record number of promotions in 2023, Kirkland & Ellis promoted fewer Partners than the previous year, as have most of the AM Law 1-25 firms that have already announced their promotion classes for 2024.

Eversheds Sutherland and A&O Shearman are the only top 10 UK firms to have promoted more Partners in 2024 than 2023. A&O Shearman's Partner class partly grew thanks to the combination of Allen & Overy (32) and Shearman Sterling (8) Associates.

The number of promoted Partners increased dramatically in 2022 and remained high in 2023. This year's combined numbers are still higher than the 2020 or 2021 class sizes.

The share of promoted Partners that work in Corporate practices has increased by +6% compared to 2023, while most other practice areas have decreased by a small amount.

M&A demand has been growing steadily this year and 'activity is only expected to keep climbing because of the needs and desires of corporate leaders to transform their businesses — due primarily to the impact of AI and to accelerate their growth in a sluggish economy.'

Litigation and Banking & Finance also remain popular practice areas among this year's promoted Partners.

Some are homegrown talent who have spent the majority of their career at their current firm, while others have been laterally hired by their current firm after spending a few years working at a rival law firm. The top AM Law firms have all deployed slightly different strategies to acquiring and developing their Associates.

The broad range of experience could relate to the mixture of equity and non-equity Partner tiers.

Of the 200 Partners promoted by Kirkland & Ellis this year, most have 6-7 years of experience.

Note on methodology

Sources: Pirical Legal Professionals, using publicly available data

Press releases from AM Law 1-25 firms that had announced Partner promotions at time of writing

(Kirkland & Ellis, Baker McKenzie, DLA Piper, Latham & Watkins, Skadden, Ropes & Gray, White & Case, Morgan Lewis, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Hogan Lovells, Goodwin Procter)

Written using publicly-available data from Pirical Legal Professionals (PLP)

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