Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has revised its partner gender target after two failed attempts to hit previous goals.

The firm is now targeting a partnership comprising 35 percent women in both partner and partner leadership roles (which include regional practice heads and office managing partners) by 1 May 2023.

HSF was one of the first international law firms to introduce a target to improve its partnership gender balance in 2014. It initially set an interim target of a 25 percent female partnership by May 2017 and 30 percent by 2019 – both of which it narrowly missed by around 4 percent.

Currently, 124 of HSF's partners are women, equating to 26 percent of its global partnership. Women make up 23 percent of partner leadership roles at the firm.

CEO Mark Rigotti said in a statement: "I am very proud to say that the number of women in our partnership has increased from 81 to 124 in the five years since we set the original targets. The results show that we have had real success in highlighting and addressing the issue of gender diversity in our partnership pipeline and in the partnership, in a way which was not previously the case.

"As a firm we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of continuously pushing for better gender diversity. Targets should be aspirational and set to stretch and drive significant change. I believe our new higher target of 35 percent will do just that and keep the momentum going."