King & Wood Mallesons has set a target percentage for female partners in its Australian arm, becoming the latest firm to push gender diversity up the agenda.

The firm is aiming to increase the proportion of women in its Australian partnership to 30% by 2015, as part of a broader diversity initiative.

The Sino-Australian firm, which currently has a 25% female Australian partnership, is set to roll out diversity initiatives including an unconscious bias awareness training programme, alongside its existing 'Engaging Women' forum.

People and talent managing partner Caroline Coops commented: "A gender diversity target is a key milestone in our broader diversity agenda. We will continue to challenge ourselves as a firm, and actively pursue initiatives which ensure we have a diverse and inclusive workplace."

King & Wood Mallesons, which was formed by the March merger of Australia's Mallesons Stephen Jaques and China's King & Wood, operates as a three-partnership Swiss verein in China, Hong Kong and Australia. However, the firm has no current plans to roll out the female targets to its Hong Kong and China arms.

Australia diversity head Neil Cockroft confirmed: "At this stage, the target and supporting action plan are Australia-specific. The context is different in our China and Hong Kong partnerships.Nonetheless, if it proves to be a successful model, we might explore the relevance of the approach beyond Australia, within the longer-term King & Wood Mallesons integration process."

According to Coops, the use of targets has led to a six-fold increase in female board appointments at top Australian corporates since 2010, with female board representation at ASX 200 companies rising from 8% to around 14%.

The initiative comes amid a number of moves by UK firms to boost female representation in their partnerships. Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have both rolled out unconscious bias training scheme for their partners, while Herbert Smith, Hogan Lovells and Addleshaw Goddard are among a host of other firms to have kicked off initiatives to help retain and promote more female lawyers.