Slaughter and May is the first magic circle firm to announce its global partnership round, making up seven new partners in London and one in Hong Kong. Of the eight promotions, two went to women.

Those who received the nod are: Tim Blanchard (investigations), Natalie Cook (corporate), Alexander Dustan (corporate), Harry Hecht (corporate), Ben Heron (corporate, Hong Kong), Claire Jackson (corporate), Oliver Moir (infrastructure, energy, natural resources) and Samay Shah (financing).

Last year, Slaughter and May elected just two partners – both men – while it promoted four new partners in 2018, seven in 2017 and 10 in 2016.

Steve Cooke, senior partner, said: 'Each of these talented individuals has already established a strong track record of providing excellent advice to our clients and will make an important contribution to the continuing growth of our business. The fact that we have promoted lawyers from a broad spread of practice areas in these uncertain times reflects the underlying strength of the firm.'

Earlier this year international firm Reed Smith appointed almost 30 new partners worldwide, with all London promotions going to women.