Magic circle left wanting in female partnership stakes

The magic circle is falling short in the diversity stakes when it comes to female partners, with all four seeing less than 10 per cent of their equity falling into female hands.

As part of its UK 200 Annual Report, The Lawyer asked firms how many of their partners and equity partners were female. The top scorer overall was South West firm Morgan Cole, although with 30 per cent of its partnership being female and 37 per cent of its equity held by women, the balance is still far from being equal.

The magic circle figures are lower. Just 15 per cent of Allen & Overy's 449 partners are female, while of the 354 equity partners, 14 per cent are women.

At Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer the figures are 13 per cent in both cases, while 14 per cent of Linklaters' partnership is female, with the figure dropping to 12 per cent for the equity partnership. At Clifford Chance 15 per cent of the 617-lawyer partnership and 11 per cent of the 394-strong equity partnership is female.