The number of female lawyers making partnership at the UK's top 20 law firms rose by more than a third (36%) in 2014, alongside a 14% rise in overall global partner promotions.

Female partners account for 31% (113) of the 370 global partner promotions in this year's round. The proportion of women being promoted is up on both last year (26%) and 2012 (27%), suggesting top firms' efforts to increase diversity in their partnerships are bearing fruit. 

Almost half of the combined number of promotions at Linklaters, Slaughter and May and Norton Rose Fulbright are women, while Clifford Chance (CC), Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and Ashurst have all broken the 30% mark. More than half of the promotions at both Irwin Mitchell (60%) and DAC Beachcroft (56%) are female. Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), which made up eight new partners, is the only top 20 UK firm to have promoted no women in this year's round. 

Vanessa Havard-Williams, a corporate partner at Linklaters and one of the sponsors of the firm's women leadership programme, says: "There has been a general trend where firms are becoming better at identifying and encouraging people right across their talent pool. bright-susan-hogan-lovells

"At Linklaters we have introduced a women's leadership programme that gives high-potential women support and advice to develop their career in law, and the aim is that this will help us to lose fewer women further down the line. We also operate a formal flexi-working scheme, which lawyers can apply for across the firm, while the London corporate practice has a scheme where anyone can work from home one day a week. This is now being looked at for other parts of the firm." 

Two of this year's female promotions went through the women's leadership programme, which is jointly run with Cranfield University. In total, nine out of 21 of Linklaters' promotions this year are female.

Global promotions among the top 20 (excluding DWF, which makes partner promotions in November) are up by 14% on last year, with 370 lawyers making the grade in 2014 compared to 325 among the same group of firms in 2013. 

Only five firms – Allen & Overy, BLP, Eversheds, Irwin Mitchell and Linklaters – promoted fewer partners globally than in 2013.

Slaughters and DAC Beachcroft both saw bumper promotion rounds, with the former making up ten partners compared to two last year, and the latter promoting 16, up from five.

"Our larger crop of new partners this year was principally because we had such a strong bench of candidates," says Paul Olney, practice partner at Slaughters. "Our decisions on making up partners are always based on the individual qualities of the candidates and the business case for more partners in the practice area concerned. 

"Our promotions in Hong Kong (where three partners were made up) reflect the strength of the candidates there and our confidence in the longer-term prospects for Hong Kong and the region."

This year 29% of new partners are based in London, with the total of 106 marking a 34% rise on 2013. HSF and Hogan Lovells made the largest number of promotions in the City, with 11 new partners each. 

"Our London office is the largest in the firm so it is not surprising we see high numbers of internal talent," says Susan Bright, Hogan Lovells regional managing partner for the UK and Africa (pictured, above). "We had a good financial year in 2013 and revenue growth in the City is a key driver for the firm. The London market is busier, and we have made several lateral hires as a result of there being more transactions and an uptick in litigation and finance work."malcolm-sweeting-cc

Promotions in Asia are marginally up, with 37 partner promotions this year compared to 31 in 2013. Seven firms made up more partners in Asia this year than they did last year, with CC welcoming the most new partners in the region (seven).

"Asia is a major priority for us and the opportunities there warrant investment, particularly in Singapore where we can now practise local law," explains CC senior partner Malcolm Sweeting (pictured, right). 

"Although there is more volatility in the Asia-Pacific market than others, the trend is in one direction – upward. There is more direct investment from western countries and the Chinese are exporting capital, meaning Asia's domestic economy is growing rapidly." 

In the US partner promotions are up 44% year on year, with 49 partners made up compared to 34 last year. As a proportion of the total number of global promotions, the US accounted for 13%, with DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells and Norton Rose making up the bulk of appointments with 21, 15 and seven respectively.

Elsewhere, the EMEA region (not including the UK) remained relatively static this year, with 102 partners made up – just down from the 108 promoted last year. This contributed to 28% of the overall 2014 global promotions.