Pinsents inches towards diversity target with eight women made up

Pinsent Masons has inched closer to its gender diversity target after female lawyers made up 44 per cent of the 18 promoted to the firm’s partnership.

The eight new female lawyers brings the proportion of women in the partnership to 23 per cent, up from 22 per cent last year.

In 2014 Pinsents unveiled plans to boost gender diversity to 25 per cent by 2018 with the ultimate goal for this figure to reach 30 per cent. The firm’s 2015 promotion round was significantly larger than this year’s and saw 11 women and 18 men made up.

Senior partner Richard Foley said: “This year’s promotion round is a reflection of both the quality of people within the firm, and our broader commitment to ensuring that talent can flourish at Pinsent Masons irrespective of gender. All of those who’ve been promoted have got there on merit, having demonstrated an ability to provide high quality legal advice delivered in the context of the sector in which the client operates.”

The firm made up one lawyer to partner in its French office while the remaining 17 lawyers are based in the UK. The majority of those made up did not train at the firm.

The largest number of promotions were made within Pinsents’ financial services and technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sectors, which received four and three new partners respectively.

The remainder of the promotions were distributed across energy (two), infrastructure (two), property (two) and one apiece in competition, life sciences, litigation and regulatory, pensions, and tax.