Linklaters to replace departing senior partner with first woman in the role

Linklaters is set to make firm history by replacing departing senior partner Charlie Jacobs with the first woman to step into the role in 183 years.

According to the Law Society Gazette, the firm’s current shortlist for the vacant senior partner position consists of Aedamar Comiskey, Sarah Wiggins and Claudia Parzani.

Comiskey is Linklaters’ global corporate head and is based on London. She is a seasoned public and private M&A lawyer who was involved in several high-profile market transactions.

She has guided the boards of major international companies, and is at the fore of Linklaters’ relationships with clients like HSBC, MS Amlin, Tate & Lyle, Vesuvius and Visa. She was appointed as global corporate head in 2016, and co-led the firm’s global retail sector group for three years.

Comiskey has served the firm in various senior roles, including as a partnership board member and a member of the partnership election committee.

Wiggins is a corporate and M&A partner operating from Linklaters’ London office. Her expertise covers M&A, IPOs, privatisations, joint ventures and general corporate finance, particularly cross-border transactions.

She has worked with clients in the oil and gas, chemicals, construction, real estate, professional services, insurance and FMCG sectors. She has advised key clients like BP, Reckitt Benckiser and PwC.

Wiggins has in-house experience as well; from 2012 to 2013, she collaborated with BP’s GC and deputy GC on market-related and crisis management matters during an eight-month secondment. In 2015-2016, she served a 16-month term as Reckitt Benckiser’s interim GC.

Parzani, who works from Linklaters’ Milan branch, is the firm’s western Europe managing partner. She specialises in capital markets, regularly working on public M&A transactions, IPOs, private placements, rights issues, secondary offerings, bond issues and convertible bonds.

As corporate governance adviser to the boards of Italian banks and listed companies, she has championed the inclusion of women in company boards. In 2020, she was included in Yahoo Finance’s HERoes Women Role Model List, which celebrates successful women in business, for the fourth straight year.

Parzani was among the leaders of a review conducted on Linklaters’ governance structure. She was elected western Europe managing partner in 2016.

The election of any of these women to senior partner will put Linklaters on par with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Herbert Smith Freehills, both of whom elected female senior partners earlier this year.