Just nine women made partner out of 35 appointments across group in 2013, with HSF making up none

The number of female partner promotions at Australia's big six law firms has dropped by almost 40% in the last year despite an industry-wide push to boost gender diversity.

Across the national partnerships of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), Ashurst, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), Allens, Clayton Utz and Minter Ellison, just nine women made partner in 2013 out of a total of 35 internal promotions (26%), research by Legal Week has shown.

This figure has dipped significantly since 2012, when more than 40% of all partner appointments – 24 out of 58 across the six outfits – were female.

It comes amid a marginal drop in the total number of female partners across the firms – from 21.3% in June 2012 to 20.7% this October.

The latest data comes despite a push by Australian firms to boost their female equity partner numbers. 

Last year, KWM rolled out a target of reaching a 30% female partnership by 2015, while Minters wants half of its internal promotions over a five-year period to be women.

Ashurst and HSF are in the process of setting targets, while Allens has set quotas for 2017 but declined to give details. Clayton Utz said it has a diversity programme but no targets currently.

Broken down by firm, KWM and Allens were the only ones to see an increase in overall female partner numbers, with women now making up 26.3% of the former's partnership and 18% of the latter's. The pair, alongside Minters, were also the only firms to see an increase in female promotion numbers.

KWM Australia managing partner Sue Kench said: "It's been about 15 months since we announced the gender target for the Australian practice and the increase in female representation at partner level during that time is around one. This is very encouraging, particularly in the context of an extremely challenging domestic legal market, which has altered significantly even since the target was announced. 

"There is no immediate plan to adopt the target throughout the rest of the network but this is something the firm's international management committee will consider."

HSF saw the biggest dip in female partner promotions, with no women made up to the partnership in 2013 out of a seven-strong round after half of the firm's promotions (five out of 10) in 2012 were female partners. Its total proportion of female partners fell from 23.8% to 21.1%.

Several of the firms have also seen a decrease in the number of women taking up flexible working arrangements, with HSF seeing uptake drop from 12 to 5, Ashurst from 16 to 9 and Allens 18 to 11. 

In total flexible working uptake across the group dropped from 74 partners last year to 52.

Female % of partnership at big six Australian firms 2013 (2012)

Minter Ellison 18.5% (19.1%)
Ashurst 22% (23%)
Herbert Smith Freehills 21.1% (23.8%)
Clayton Utz 19.4% (20.5%)
Allens 18% (16.8%)
King & Wood Mallesons 26.3% (25.0%)