Milbank makes up one London partner in leaner round

Milbank has made up eight lawyers to partner this year, with only one in London, in a class weighted towards the firm’s core strengths in finance and energy and infrastructure.

The London promotion went to Robert Wyse Jackson in the alternative investments group, where he advises asset managers, banks, corporates, and private and public investors. The promotions took effect on 1 January.

This is a bit of a down round as last year Milbank made up 17 partners, including three in London. Those City promotions included two in energy and infrastructure finance and one in capital markets.

London lateral push

While the promotions round is tighter, it follows a year of targeted lateral hiring in London.

Milbank brought on two partners from Paul Hastings to launch its European real estate finance practice and picked up a three-partner infrastructure team from White & Case as part of a scaling up of its energy and infrastructure capabilities, an area the firm has been doubling down on.

Milbank's London office now counts 45 partners, according to the firm's website. It is the firm's second largest office globally after New York.

Major mandates

The infrastructure hires led on investor Macquarie’s stakes in three UK airports just months after joining the firm.

Other high-profile London mandates include the firm acting on the €7.7 billion private equity buyout of BASF’s coatings business and AI infrastructure company Nscale's $1.1 billion data centre fundraise.