Allen & Overy (A&O) has released details of its gender pay gap – including partners – for both 2018 and 2017, after facing criticism from MPs for being the last of the magic circle to do so.

The firm has now released its figures for both 2018 and 2017, revealing that for 2017, when including partners, it had the second largest mean gender pay gap among the magic circle.

The firm's combined UK partner and employees gender pay gap for 2017 is 65%, just below Clifford Chance (66.3%), but above the other three magic circle firms, all of which reported mean pay gaps of between 60% and 62%.

However, A&O has also released its 2018 figures, which do show an improvement, with the pay gap falling to 61.2%.

On a median basis, the 2017 pay gap is 42.1%, improving to 39% for 2018.

In the report, senior partner Wim Dejonghe says: "Changing practices and behaviours that have existed around the world for decades is hard, but we have to work every day to do just that. We have to address diversity and gender balance right at the top of our business by really committing to change – by introducing targets and holding ourselves accountable for them, and by measuring progress all the time.

"We have to address diversity at the bottom by understanding where the barriers really are (not where we've assumed they are for years) and by challenging outdated perceptions and practices when we see them in the daily realities here – whether that's checking biases and assumptions, or providing better emergency childcare and hub offices to reduce commuting times.

"We had a very open debate about diversity and inclusion at our global partners' conference this year, and know we need to look harder for and support diverse talent wherever it exists – not just assume the best people will always make it to the top."

The release of the figures comes several months after a request from the parliamentary committee investigating gender pay gap reporting. A&O had been criticised for "dragging its feet" in asking for until September to provide its figures after the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy select committee wrote to all five magic circle firms to request that they restate their data, including partners, earlier this year.

A&O has also released data for its Belfast office, which houses more than 100 legal professionals. In 2017, the mean hourly gender pay gap was 14%, dipping slightly to 13.8% in 2018.

The report also details the split between bonuses paid to men and women during both years. In 2017, bonuses were paid out to slightly more men than women in the UK, with 55.5% of men receiving a bonus compared to 53.2% of women.

For 2018, both UK figures increased dramatically, with a greater proportion of women taking home bonuses. Some 79.6% of women received a bonus in the last financial year, compared to 74.8% of men.

However, the mean bonus gap still swung in favour of men in both years, with a 42.1% gap in 2017 and a 45.3% gap the following year.

A&O HR director Sasha Hardman told Legal Week: "We are focused on women's career progression, and until that improves there won't be a material impact on the gender pay gap."

A&O has also included ethnicity pay gap figures in its report, and has committed to doing so in subsequent years.

Currently, 14% of A&O's UK partner and employee population are black, asian or minority ethnic (BAME) and the firm has reported a mean pay gap of 22.8% for that group in 2017 and 21.6% for 2018.

All four of the other magic circle firms have already released their pay gap data with partners included, with CC and Linklaters doing so voluntarily this March, and Freshfields and Slaughters disclosing their figures in May in response to the demand from the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.

Slaughters' revised figures showed that when all its UK partners are included, the mean gender pay gap is 61.8%. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has a mean gender pay gap of 60.4% when partners are included, Linklaters with 60.3% and CC with 66.3%.

Discussions over the possibility of a more standardised approach to including partners in pay gap reporting are taking place, and this May, CC London managing partner Michael Bates and Pinsent Masons senior partner Richard Foley met with new Law Society president Christina Blacklaws to look at how to encourage more transparency next year.

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee's final report on the effectiveness of the first year of reporting, published this August, called for partners to be included in next year's reporting, describing their exclusion as making "a nonsense" of efforts to tackle the pay gap.

The gender pay gap will be a topic of discussion at Legal Week CONNECT 2018, with senior lawyers and in house counsel offering their opinions during the event.

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