BLM is most female friendly firm in UK top 50

27 Jan 2010

Berrymans Lace Mawer LLP (BLM) has been recognised by The Lawyer for having the highest proportion of female partners among the top 50 UK firms by turnover in the following article published on 27 January 2010:

Berrymans Lace Mawer has the highest proportion of female partners among the top 50 UK firms by turnover, with 35 per cent of its partnership made up of women.

According to research carried out by The Lawyer the firm had a total of 110 partners during the 2008-09 financial year. Of those, 39 were female.

Senior partner Terry Renouf said that this was partly as a result of the firm’s focus on defendant insurance work, which allows for greater flexibility in time management.

“We don’t do transactions, we don’t do M&A,” he said. “The bigger cases are very much about project management, it’s bringing together expert witnesses and barristers and there’s probably a greater degree of control over the work we do [than at some firms].”

Several of the firm’s senior managers are women, including London head of professional indemnity Charlotte Capstick, who also sits on the remuneration committee.

The availability of part-time working arrangements is often seen as critical in improving female retention and promotion rates. BLM has offered the option of part-time working to all of its partners - including its 54 equity partners - for several years.

This comes as Allen & Overy (A&O) has become the latest firm to offer part-time working arrangements to all of its partners in an attempt to improve female retention rates.

Some 15 per cent of the firm’s partners were women last year, ranking it 38th in the top 50 by number of female partners.

Geoff Fuller, an A&O capital markets partner who chaired a steering committee at the firm charged with putting together a proposal on part-time working, said it was “very clear that there was overwhelming support for some form of part-time working” among the partnership.

However, not all firms with part-time working arrangements already in place scored highly. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where an estimated 1.5 per cent of the partnership works part-time, came in at 45th. Twelve per cent of all partners at the firm were women.

Among the top 50 firms by revenue Ince & Co had the smallest proportion of female partners. Nine of the firm’s 85 partners were women, the equivalent of 11 per cent, while 12 per cent of equity partner were women.

Firm	Total partners	Total EP	Total female partners	Total FEP	% of partnership	% of equity
Berrymans Lace Mawer	110	54	39	15	35	28
Beachcroft	135	84	44	25	33	30
Shoosmiths	109	37	35	6	32	16
Withers	107	52	33	16	31	31
Irwin Mitchell	112	55	34	11	30	20
Hill Dickinson	151	53	41	5	27	9
Charles Russell	100	45	26	7	26	16
Halliwells	154	42	38	8	25	19
McGrigors	83	47	20	12	24	26
Trowers & Hamlins	109	25	26	6	24	24
Nabarro	135	95	32	21	24	22
CMS Cameron McKenna	190	122	45	24	24	20
Mills & Reeve	87	58	20	10	23	17
Olswang	101	62	23	11	23	18
Salans	181	75	40	20	22	27
Eversheds	350	150	76	22	22	15
Denton Wilde Sapte	181	86	39	17	22	20
Addleshaw Goddard	182	111	39	18	21	16
Berwin Leighton Paisner	184	84	39	12	21	14
Field Fisher Waterhouse	124	41	26	5	21	12
Kennedys	117	40	24	5	21	13
Bird & Bird	192	72	39	15	20	21
Watson Farley & Williams	79	57	16	9	20	16
Pinsent Masons	283	116	57	10	20	9
Slaughter and May	131	125	25	23	19	18
Dundas & Wilson	79	79	15	15	19	19
Lovells	349	240	66	39	19	16
Hammonds	180	73	34	11	19	15
DLA Piper (Emea)	595	188	108	17	18	9
Ashurst	221	144	40	21	18	15
Stephenson Harwood	87	43	15	4	17	9
Wragge & Co	112	112	19	19	17	17
Norton Rose	264	171	44	26	17	15
LG	83	45	13	9	16	20
Clifford Chance	637	368	96	51	15	14
Osborne Clarke	114	56	17	9	15	16
Linklaters	513	428	76	57	15	13
Allen & Overy	490	372	72	52	15	14
Herbert Smith	238	137	34	14	14	10
Clyde & Co	150	87	21	9	14	10
Macfarlanes	75	52	10	3	13	6
SJ Berwin	170	98	22	16	13	16
Burges Salmon	70	51	9	3	13	6
Holman Fenwick Willan	114	61	14	4	12	7
Freshfields	444	417	54	51	12	12
Simmons & Simmons	232	134	28	10	12	7
Taylor Wessing	280	152	32	11	11	7
Barlow Lyde & Gilbert	88	77	10	8	11	10
Travers Smith	63	46	7	6	11	13
Ince & Co	85	50	9	6	11	12

(data refers to 2008-9 financial year)

This article was first published in The Lawyer on 27 January 2010.

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