Eversheds Sutherland has rolled out targets to improve the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) makeup of its U.K. partnership and workforce.

It has set itself a six-year target to nearly double the size of its BAME U.K. partnership. Currently, BAME lawyers make up just over 5% of the U.K. partnership, and the firm wants that to hit 10% by 2025.

The firm has also set a longer timescale to improve its entire U.K. workforce, including partners.

It wants its whole U.K. staff group to be 14% BAME by 2022. The figure currently stands at just under 12%.

Additionally, from next year the international firm's U.K. arm will publish its ethnicity pay gap data alongside its gender pay report.

Eversheds Sutherland CEO Lee Ranson said in a statement: "We want Eversheds Sutherland to be a firm which reflects the world in which we live and work, and where opportunity is available to the many and not the few. Recognising the challenges often faced by the BAME community, we are setting targets, as we have in other areas, to bring accountability and transparency to the success of our programme to build a more ethnically diverse workforce."

The firm is one of few to commit to a target to improve BAME representation across its ranks.

Earlier this year, Baker McKenzie announced its intention to boost the amount of BAME employees across its London office, targeting a 14% workforce makeup. The firm did not set a date to achieve that level of representation.