Scan the figures from this year’s Legal Business 100 survey and it seems that little has changed when it comes to gender diversity in the non-equity and equity partner ranks. Of the 7,376 equity partners across the UK’s 100 largest law firms by revenue, in 2010/11 just 17% of all equity partners are female. Similarly, just 23% of the 13,317 total partners are female.
This statistic has hardly altered in the last six years. In 2005, information gathered for the LB100 showed that just 15% of equity partners were women. After the numbers were crunched, it meant on average nine out of 66 equity partners were female.
But go back another 20 years, and this number is a significant improvement from the days when only 20 women made it into the equity at the ten largest City firms combined.
The path for women into partnership has been widely debated, examined and tracked by many of the firms at the top of the market, which arguably have the poorest show of senior female partners Clifford Chance, for example, has just 77 female partners across its 30-office global business. That equates to 14% of the firm’s overall partnership of 552.
Global Elite peers Allen & Overy, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Herbert Smith fare no better. There are only 13 female partners in Herbert Smith’s equity, which represents about 10% of the overall equity partnership. Linklaters, which is quickly moving towards an all-equity partnership, has 61 female equity partners out of a total of 442. Freshfields and CC refused to provide female equity partner numbers.
CC managing partner David Childs says he recognises the poor figures and insists that his firm takes the matter seriously. CC aims to bring the female proportion of the partnership up to 30% in the coming years. But when pressed about the lack of information about women at the top of the lockstep, he says: ‘We just make sure the right people are promoted [into the equity].’
‘If you look back to figures from 20 to 30 years ago there were large numbers of women entering the law but very few partners in City firms,’ says Slaughter and May corporate chief Frances Murphy. ‘You might see 15 to 20% as a big improvement.
‘It’s clearly an area of continuing focus for all law firms – no business wants to lose talented individuals (particularly after making a significant investment in their training) – but I don’t think there are quick fix answers.’
Murphy argues that it is better to look at the legal sector within the context of the wider business community. The topic of the promotion/retention of women within some of the largest corporate and financial institutions is at the top of the agenda, with a majority of FTSE 100 companies aiming to have women representing 25% of their boards by 2015.
f the larger City law firms, CMS Cameron McKenna and SJ Berwin come out on top. The former has 18 female equity partners out of 97, while the latter has 16 female equity partners out of 82.
Overall, Manchester’s Pannone came out on top as having the best track record among full-service firms for retaining and promoting women into the equity partnership. Women make up 38% of the firm’s 33 equity partners. Meanwhile, more than a third of the equity partnership at London Midsizer firms Forsters and Russell-Cooke are female.
Firms in the Central peer group have the best track record for promoting women into the senior ranks. Of the numbers across the entire LB100, 25% of equity partners at Central firms are female. London Midsizers also come out as a top promoter of female equity partners. Almost 20% of equity partners within this capital peer group are women. On average, women made up roughly 16% of the equity across the LB100. Global Elite firms fall below this average, as just 14% of partners at the top are female. Major International firms fare no better with women making up just 15% of equity partner numbers. LB