This year, the number of women in our two lower pay quartiles increased slightly, while representation in the top two quartiles saw a small decrease. To narrow the gender pay gap, the distribution across all quartiles will need to more closely reflect our overall gender split of 72% female to 28% male.

Looking more closely at gender balance across different levels, 83% of our trainees and apprentices are female, compared with 51% of our salaried partners. While this demonstrates strong female representation at entry level, it also affects the figures in our lower quartile.

Encouragingly, our first cohort of legal apprentices, who qualified in September 2025, were all women – a sign of the growing pipeline of female talent. We remain focused on achieving greater balance at senior levels, including equity partnership and leadership roles. In 2024/25, we recruited two female partners and promoted one internally, alongside two male partner hires. While this strengthens female representation in senior positions, the overall impact on the figures is limited due to our 72% female workforce.