Bingham McCutchen is to take the unusual step of promoting two qualified barristers to the partner-ship in its London office, as the US giant moves to double the size of its City partnership.

The Boston-based firm is set to promote Tom Bannister (restruc-turing) and Natasha Demetriou (litigation) to the partnership, within a month of the pair recently passing Law Society qualification exams enabling them to be made up.