Shearman & Sterling observes partner promotions round

Shearman & Sterling observes partner promotions round

Subsequently 2021's main international round of recruiting, US lawyers dominate 2022's 12 strong cohort

Shearman & Sterling's latest partner promotion round favoured lawyers in the United States, with nine of the 12 spots going to attorneys in the country.

Nine of 14 promotions made throughout the New York firm's international network following a six-month delay last year were made in the United States. Almost a year after the last promotions were announced in June 2021, the latest round has arrived.

Among the 14 new partners, four (33.3 percent) are females, marking a slight decline from last year when six women out of 14 comprised the firm or 42 percent of the total.

All five successful candidates this year hail from New York: Lorenz Haselberger (tax), Erika Kent (capital markets), Jonathan Newman (real estate), Sara Raisner (litigation) and Augusto Ruiloba (project development and finance).

Robert Freedman, Alexandro Padres and Gregory Tan, partners in Shearman's projects and infrastructure department, departed last month to join rival Paul Hastings, where Tan and Padres have been named co-chairs of the energy and infrastructure practice.

The other US promotions went to capital markets attorney Yian Huang in Menlo Park, antitrust and commercial litigator Rachel Mossman in Dallas, international arbitration professional Jesse Sherrett in Washington DC and technology expert Cassandra Cuellar in Austin.

Several lawyers in the Middle East have been promoted - David Hume in arbitration and Samuel Ogunlaja in project development and finance - both moved up in Abu Dhabi. Finally, in London, Sam Whitaker was selected as the final candidate (compensation, governance and ERISA).

Shearman's senior partner, David Beveridge, said the latest roster selection was "key" to implementing the firm's strategy to strengthen its "core practice areas with highest potential, aligned with the market".

Though it avoided its continental European network this year, Shearman has made a few significant lateral moves to expand its presence in Europe, including the arrival of a team of four partners from DLA Piper in Paris in October. In France, the group was led by Xavier Norlain, a former managing partner of DLA Piper. It specializes in advising clients in the financial services sector regarding mergers and acquisitions, private equity, leveraged finance and restructuring issues.

The promotions come after Shearman reported stellar financial results in March, including a 18 percent rise in revenue to $1.01bn, as profits per equity partner (PEP) expanded 58 percent to just over $3m.

As PEP rose, Shearman's revenue fell, by 11 percent, the previous year, after declining by 23 percent. As a result, Shearman is one of only a few top 100 firms not to record positive growth. Those declines were more than made up for in the recent results.