A growing number of UK top 50 firms are considering whether to restate their gender pay gap figures with partner data included, as recent disclosures by rivals raise the pressure on law firms to be more transparent about the disparity among their senior ranks.

More and more firms are going beyond the statutory reporting requirements and including partners in their reporting, including Clifford Chance (CC), which yesterday (27 March) became the first magic circle firm to include equity partners in its report, and Pinsent Masons, which has restated its figures to include partners and called on fellow law firms to follow suit.

Several leading firms are now considering reissuing their figures with partners included, including Allen & Overy and CMS. Both firms have already published their gender pay gap data for UK employees, but have confirmed that they are now looking at whether to disclose the gap at partner level.

Two more top 50 firms have today reported their pay gap figures with partners included. Eversheds Sutherland has revealed that for equity partners, the pay gap is actually 10.3% in favour of women.

The firm, which has a 27% female partnership but a 66% female staff population, has an overall pay gap of 23.2% in favour of male employees. Male lawyers are paid on average 4.8% more than women, while male fixed-share partners receive on average 4.6% more.

Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) has also included partners in its reporting, finding an 8.7% pay gap in favour of men at partner level, although there is no difference in average hourly pay for male and female fee earners, and female associates are paid 5.3% more on average than their male counterparts.

HFW said it had chosen to publish "significantly more data than the law requires – even if it is negative – in order to be as open and transparent as possible".

This Monday (26 March), Pinsents revealed a 22% partner pay gap in favour of male partners after originally publishing data in early February that only covered non-partner staff. The firm added that it would be "engaging with the Law Society and other City law firms to seek their support in making representations to government to make changes" to what firms are required to report.

CC – which yesterday revealed that the mean gender pay gap for the whole of its London workforce, including all partners and employees, is 66.3% in favour of men – said that it hoped that other firms would "demonstrate their commitment to addressing gender issues by adopting an equally transparent approach".

Of the rest of the magic circle, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May have said they will not release partner data, while Linklaters declined to comment on whether it is considering such a move.

Other leading firms are understood to be keeping a close eye on developments, with Hogan Lovells, which is yet to publish its report, telling Legal Week: "We appreciate the reporting in this area will continue to evolve, and so we will look at this in line with the rest of the legal market."

Yesterday, Dentons joined the growing group of law firms to have disclosed details of the pay gap at partner level, revealing that male partners at the UK arm of the international firm are paid on average 23% more than their female counterparts, a gap broadly in line with the firm's 22% pay gap for UK employees.

Other law firms to have already opted to include partner breakdowns in their data so far include Reed Smith, Irwin Mitchell and Norton Rose Fulbright.

The big four accounting firms led the way by restating their figures to include partner earnings following criticism from high-profile figures such as Conservative MP Nicky Morgan, who said that by not including partners, firms were "taking advantage of a loophole" and "abiding by the letter of the law, but not the spirit".