TLT announces partner promotions effective from 1 May 2022

UK law firm TLT has announced the promotion of five colleagues to partner, bringing the total number of partners to 149, as well as one colleague to the partner equivalent role of client services director.

The newly appointed partners are commercial lawyer Eleanor McClelland, real estate lawyer Kerri Ashworth, employment lawyer Sarah Skeen, pensions lawyer Damien Garrould and financial services lawyer Samuel McCollum. The firm has also promoted Sian Davies to the partner equivalent role of client services director.  

These appointments take TLT’s female partner representation to 31.5% - up from 24% in October 2019, when TLT first committed to a longer-term gender diversity target of 33% female partners by 2025. As a result, TLT’s trajectory is ahead of its target and places it in the upper quartile of success amongst its legal industry peers and, importantly, for gender equality in other areas of the firm, also follows the recent positive news of a record low gender pay gap.

The promotions come following a successful year in 2021 during which the firm adopted a significant, long-term shift in its working practices to create a fully flexible, progressive and inclusive work environment. The new approach – grounded in firm wide consultations with employees and partners – places TLT among the legal industry’s most progressive firms in terms of workplace flexibility. The approach acknowledges that everyone’s personal and professional life is different, and allows employees the flexibility to work at a time and place that suits them, their clients and their role. 

The firm credits these balanced positive results to its longer-term gender equality strategy, which has included a number of initiatives such as: 

• A fully flexible approach to work allowing employees to choose when and where they work
• A ‘ramp down, ramp up’ programme for expectant and new parents to support the transition into and from family leave
• A market-leading maternity and shared parental provision, with complementary policies to support fathers or non-birthing parents 
• Two new apprenticeship programmes which offer alternative and more inclusive routes to qualify as a solicitor 

Helen Hodgkinson, chief people officer at TLT commented: “We’re delighted to be able to share the success of our talented colleagues across the firm. I’m particularly pleased to note the gender split across the promotions, which brings us even closer to achieving our 33% female partnership target by 2025. 

“It’s an exciting time to be part of TLT and we’re proud of our achievements in the last twelve months. I am particularly proud of our move to a fully-flexible way of working in 2021 and our people-first culture which has been instrumental to our success and to delivering top-tier results for our clients. These promotions recognise the continued growth and success of our firm and acknowledge the critical contributions our people continue to make to our firm and our clients.”

Senior partner Andrew Glynn added “Our business has enjoyed a remarkably successful year and one of the chief rewards is to mark that success with the promotion of new partners and others within our firm. The scale of contributions has been significant and ranges across our practice groups, sectors and locations. We congratulate those promoted and look forward to seeing all they achieve at TLT”.

TLT also promoted five senior associates to legal director across its Bristol, London, Manchester and Glasgow offices. 29 associates were promoted to senior associates and 25 senior associates were promoted to managing associates.