Ropes & Gray Promotes 26 Attorneys to Partner, Effective Jan. 1, 2027

Ropes & Gray has named 26 attorneys as partners of the firm, effective January 1, 2027. The class spans eleven offices and practice areas from asset management to life sciences compliance, with a heavy concentration in alternative assets.

"This is an extraordinary class. They know our clients' industries deeply and they're using AI to bring sharper insight to clients," Julie Jones, chair of Ropes & Gray, said. "They're curious, agile and collaborative, which is Ropes & Gray at its best. They're the next generation of leaders our clients will count on for decades to come."

The firm said the new partners advise clients across alternative assets, asset management, data privacy and cybersecurity, employment and benefits, health care, life sciences compliance, litigation and enforcement, private capital, real estate, strategic transactions and tax.

What does the class composition signal?

Asset management dominates the promotions. Nine of the 26 new partners sit in asset management or alternative asset practices. That weight tracks where institutional money is moving: ETFs, interval funds, tokenized vehicles and GP-led secondaries.

Boston, the firm's headquarters, accounts for 14 of the promotions. London adds three, New York four, and Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Hong Kong one each.

Who are the new partners?

The full class, by office and practice:

• Michael Allen (Boston, Real Estate) — represents private funds, mortgage REITs, developers, hedge funds and family offices on commercial real estate debt and equity, including repurchase facilities, note-on-note financings, joint ventures and co-investments.
• Sarah Blumenthal (New York, Health Care) — advises hospitals, health systems, universities, medical schools and human services providers on mergers, acquisitions, affiliations and joint ventures.
• Madeline (Mady) Cooper (Boston, Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits) — handles executive compensation, incentive equity, deferred compensation and severance in private equity and strategic deals, drawing on prior experience as a benefits consultant.
• Andrea Daley (Boston, Private Capital Transactions) — advises private equity sponsors on leveraged buyouts, carve-outs and minority and growth investments across technology, consumer, business services and infrastructure.
• David Dowling (London, Mergers & Acquisitions) — represents corporate venture groups, financial investors and start-ups in M&A and venture capital, focused on IP-rich, regulation-heavy sectors including life sciences, medtech, AI, defense and insurance.
• Kelly Finn (Boston, Mergers & Acquisitions) — represents public and private companies, boards, investment banks and private equity firms on M&A, capital markets, financings, governance and securities law.
• Michelle Huynh (Boston, Asset Management) — advises on listed closed-end funds, interval and tender offer funds, mutual funds, ETFs and structures giving investors access to alternative assets.
• Joshua Jackson (Boston, Technology & Intellectual Property) — advises companies, investors and universities on data-, technology- and IP-driven transactions across fintech, AI, digital health, biotech and software.
• Christopher Labosky (Boston, Asset Management) — advises fund sponsors on launches of ETFs, interval and tender offer funds, alternative retail funds and tokenized investment vehicles.
• Jessica Lees (Los Angeles, Asset Management) — represents investment management clients on fund formation, registration, reorganization, termination, compliance programs and disclosure.
• Edward Machin (London, Data, Privacy & Cybersecurity) — advises on privacy, data protection, cyber security, AI and digital regulation, plus law enforcement requests and personal data breaches.
• Elizabeth Madsen (Chicago, Asset Management) — represents registered funds, independent directors and investment advisors on regulatory, transactional, governance and compliance matters across the registered product spectrum.
• Alison McLaughlin (Boston, Litigation & Enforcement) — advises private equity sponsors, funds and companies on liability and transactional risk insurance, representations and warranties policies and coverage disputes.
• Marc Migliazzo (Boston, Asset Management) — focuses on GP-led secondaries and fund liquidity solutions, including continuation funds, LP tenders and structured preferred solutions.
• Dima Orendarets (London, Real Estate) — leads the firm's London real estate finance practice, advising on investment, development, senior, mezzanine and back-leverage financings across logistics, hospitality, build-to-rent, student accommodation and offices.
• Rupert Phillips (London, Litigation & Enforcement) — advises on EU and UK competition law, international merger control, FDI and FSR processes and conduct investigations in Europe and Asia.
• Nicholas Roper (Boston, Mergers & Acquisitions) — represents public companies, investment banks and private equity firms on capital markets transactions, M&A, securities law and corporate governance.
• Eli Rosenbaum (Boston, Asset Management) — co-leads the institutional investor practice, serving large institutional limited partners on anchor and seed investments, portfolio secondaries and governance initiatives.
• Peter (Pete) Scherer (Boston, Real Estate) — represents private equity clients, endowments, sovereign wealth funds and hedge funds on commercial real estate acquisitions, dispositions, financings and joint ventures.
• Rob Schmidt (Boston, Alternative Asset Opportunities) — focuses on GP-led recapitalizations, LP secondaries, preferred equity fund financings and portfolio dispositions for institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds.
• Michael Shulman (New York, Tax) — advises private equity firms on U.S. tax aspects of M&A and business restructurings, including for creditors and distressed companies, plus private fund formation.
• Kim Ton-That (New York, Private Capital Transactions) — advises private equity sponsors on M&A, leveraged buyouts, joint ventures, carve-outs, add-ons, dispositions and restructurings.
• Kevin White (San Francisco, Asset Management) — represents fund sponsors on continuation vehicle transactions, fund restructurings, fund formation, governance and co-investments.
• Rebecca Williams (Washington, D.C., Life Sciences Regulatory & Compliance) — advises pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, food and cosmetic companies under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and the Public Health Service Act.
• Young Yoon (New York, Asset Management) — represents private fund sponsors on fund formation across private equity, credit, special situations, hedge fund and real estate strategies, plus regulatory compliance.
• Billy Zhang (Hong Kong, Alternative Asset Opportunities) — represents global investors including sovereign wealth funds and pension plans on investment vehicles across real estate, private equity, infrastructure, venture capital and technology.

Why does the AI mention matter?

Jones singled out the class's use of artificial intelligence. At least three of the new partners — Dowling, Jackson and Machin — list AI directly in their practices. For a firm whose revenue depends on fund sponsors and institutional investors, the promotion class reads as a bet on where private capital work is heading.

The promotions take effect January 1, 2027, giving the firm a year to integrate the new partners into leadership of practices that serve companies, investment funds and institutions worldwide.