Eight of the top 20 UK firms paid their highest earners at least double their average profit per equity partner (PEP) figure last year, according to Legal Week research.

The disparity between what the highest paid member took home and firms' reported PEP extends to more than £1m in several cases, according to figures compiled from the firms' 2014-15 Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) filings at Companies House.

The firm with the biggest pay gap was Clyde & Co, where the highest earner took home almost triple what an average equity partner did last year. 

The accounts, which cover the period to the end of April 2015, show that Clyde's highest earner pocketed £1.8m, 2.8 times more than the firm's reported PEP figure of £660,000.

At Allen & Overy, which had the next biggest gap between highest earner and average PEP, the top paid member landed £2.9m, 2.4 times as much as the firm's average PEP of £1.2m.

At Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Berwin Leighton Paisner the top earning member was paid 2.3 times average PEP, while Eversheds, DLA Piper and Herbert Smith Freehills all paid their top earner at least double the average PEP figure.

For all of the firms' looked at, pay for the highest earner can also include additonal payments such as those relating to retirement annuities so the figure does not necessarily reflect the top of the lockstep or the highest profit share for a firm with merit-based remuneration. 

At the other end of the scale, Ashurst, Pinsent Masons and DAC Beachcroft, each have a much smaller divide between top earner and average PEP. DAC paid its top member £468,000 with average PEP sitting at £310,000 for the year. Ashurst meanwhile paid its top earning LLP member £1m, while its reported PEP was £747,000.

The highest earners across the group in absolute terms were at Linklaters and Freshfields, both of which gave out a £3.2m share of profits.

Comparing the highest earner with average LLP members' pay – which is calculated by dividing the profit available for distribution by the number of members in the LLP and therefore including both equity and non-equity members –  DLA Piper's International arm had the biggest gap. Its highest paid partner earned five times the average member's payout in the 2014-15 financial year.

Average pay per member at DLA International stood at £391,000 – £1.6m less than its top earner took home. The firm's accounts relate to its International LLP which covers its business outside the US.

The firm's regional spread – it has six regional offices in the UK as well as its London base – is likely to account for some of the disparity. DLA recently approved a shake-up of its remuneration structure across its International LLP, intended to bring it more in line with its US arm.

Other firms with a sizable gap between average pay per member and highest earner include Clyde & Co and A&O. At both of these firms the highest earner took home nearly four times as much as the average member.

The closest gap is seen at Pinsent Masons, where there is almost parity between the two figures. DAC also has a comparatively small divide.

The research also highlights the difference between average profit per member and average PEP at some firms, reflecting the fact that not all LLP members are equity partners. Those with particularly large differences include Clifford Chance, DLA Piper, A&O and Taylor Wessing.

The research excludes some figures for Anglo-Australian firm Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), which does not report its accounts in a comparable way.

Accounts for Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose Fulbright, DLA, CMS, HSF, Ashurst and Taylor Wessing cover the LLP including the UK part of the business. Where relevant the PEP figure used refers to this LLP rather than the global business. Slaughter and May is not an LLP and is therefore excluded from this research. Irwin Mitchell, which follows a corporate structure, is also excluded.