Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has narrowed its U.K. partner gender pay gap by nearly 8%, according to the firm's latest report.

The Magic Circle firm's mean hourly partner pay gap for 2019 stood at 10.4%, down from 18.3% the year previous, which the firm attributes to "fewer men at the top of the lockstep model compared to the previous year".

The firm also reported that 24% of its U.K. partners are now women.

However, the firm's overall pay gap – which includes partners, members, consultants and employees – has hardly budged from just over 57%. Meanwhile the mean gender pay gap for associates and trainees remains at 3.2%.

The pay gap among the firm's black, Asian and minority ethnic population also remains stagnant at 13%, down just 0.5% on the previous year.  

Last week, Macfarlanes reported a gender pay gap that remains essentially unchanged on last year, with a combined partner and employee gender pay gap figure of 75.02%, down just 0.24% compared to its 2018 snapshot figure.

In December, Linklaters reported a widening gender pay gap for all full-time employees – including equity partners – which increased from 61.1% to 62.2% during the 12 months to April 2019.

Earlier this month, the U.K. government announced that it has suspended the deadline for gender pay gap reporting due to the chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic, meaning law firms will not be obliged to publish their gender pay gap figures by the end of April this year.