A reader questioned last month why we had chosen to highlight the fact that all of newly merged Dentons' recent EMEA partner promotions were female. Why was their gender relevant to their promotion, they asked – would we have raised the issue if all four of the new partners were male?

And of course, he (or she) has a point. With so few women making partner – despite more of them than men joining the profession at entry level and various initiatives by firms to boost female retention – there is inevitably a bias towards reporting the few that do make the grade.

The reality is that even though increasing numbers of firms are attempting to train partners against unconscious bias in recruitment and promotion, there is still a tendency for people to recruit in their own image. And you inescapably start encountering problems when that image is predominantly white, male and middle class.

Even worse – as our lifestyle feature this week demonstrates – in some instances this innate bias is crossing a line and becoming discrimination, with several female barristers and solicitors of varying ages describing their experiences of blatant sexism in the workplace. The feature backs up Legal Week research late last year that found more than half of the partners questioned had regularly come across examples of outright sexism at work.

Tellingly, not one person spoken to for the article wanted to be named, and even the author – herself a practising lawyer – has written under a pseudonym for fear of being branded a troublemaker.

It's an issue that also relates to this week's opinion piece by Slater & Gordon partner Harriet Bowtell, which looks at a claim of pregnancy discrimination against Travers Smith by a former trainee who argues that she was not kept on because she became pregnant in her final seat.

Of course, as professions go, law is not alone in suffering ingrained sexism and poor gender equality. Just look at Vince Cable's threats this week that a lack of progress by corporates in improving diversity means quotas to increase the number of women on FTSE boards could become a real possibility.

While some may argue that repeated discussion about the promotion of women in law is becoming bromide and indeed qualifies as positive discrimination, until the pay gap between male and female lawyers narrows and the disparity between the number of women entering the profession and those going on to become partners fades, a little conscious bias can really be no bad thing.

The need to stamp out sexism and improve diversity are very real issues for all industries, and anything that helps boost the number of women reaching senior roles in top law firms should be encouraged.