In magic circles, a blind shuffle creates the illusion of mixing a deck of cards. Top London lawyers stand accused of a similar sleight of hand. The industry’s gender pay gap looked unremarkable when partners were excluded from data. If included, the gaps look three times the size.
Clifford Chance’s gap vaulted from 20 to 66 per cent once it included partners. Linklaters’ rose from 23 per cent to 60 per cent. Lex analysis suggests the gap for two other less transparent firms is similar.
At Allen & Overy, the gap tripled from 20 to 60 per cent, when estimated partner pay was included. At Freshfields the rise was from 14 to 56 per cent. Using published data we split partners’ profits for each firm between male and female partners, assuming a gender pay gap of 20 per cent. Then we added totals to those for employees to get a global figure.
Lex chartCritics point out numbers for employees are for each law firm’s big UK businesses. Partnership figures include foreign offshoots. The similarity in pay gaps with those of Clifford Chance and Linklaters suggest this may be quibbling.
Law firms can dispel uncertainties by publishing definitive numbers. This applies particularly to Slaughter and May. Its few public disclosures do not even let estimates to be made.
Some firms are aiming to promote women: two-fifths of Linklaters’ new partners this year were female. But do not expect a fast transformation. Only when more women get the chance to hold the saw — and not be the one who gets cut in half — will pay gaps at law firms begin to vanish.
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