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Women have comprised a large portion of the partner promotions at three City firms.

At least half this year's new partner promotions at Mishcon de Reya and Fieldfisher are women. At Stephenson Harwood, they represented 40 percent of the new intake.

Mishcon has made up seven lawyers, with four women (57 percent) making the cut, while Fieldfisher, in its largest promotions round on record, bumped up 14 to partner, half of whom were female. Both are among the best diversity showings so far this year in the City.

At Stephenson Harwood, 13 made partner, with women making up nearly 40% of the count, the firm confirmed – a slight drop from last year's 50/50 tally. 

Last year, Mishcon promoted two women in a six-strong cohort, while in a 10-lawyer round Fieldfisher made up just three women.

Michael Chissick, Fieldfisher managing partner said: "I am especially proud of the fact that of our 14 new partners, 50% were women – which demonstrates that the work we have been doing to increase the number of female partners at the firm is starting to pay off."

For Mishcon, the figures contrast starkly with its latest gender pay gap numbers, on which it ranked among the worst-performing firms for parity. The largest median pay gap among its staff was 40.2 percent, which rose to nearly 50 percent among partners.

Fieldfisher posted a better staff hourly pay gap at 25 percent on a median basis, narrowing to 18 percent for partners.

On gender pay parity, other strong performers so far this year include Pinsent Masons, where nearly half the latest cohort was female; Allen & Overy, where just under a quarter of this year's 34-strong global round were women; Linklaters and Eversheds Sutherland, each of whose latest partner count was a third female; and Taylor Wessing, where women account for three of the five City lawyers making the jump to partner.

Mishcon de Reya's 2019 partner promotions:

  • Justine Aytom – construction, London
  • Amanda Gray – art law, London
  • Joe Hancock – cyber, London
  • James Liffen – residential property, London
  • Rhymal Persad – dispute resolution, London
  • Janet Tobin – private client, London
  • Niki Stephens – corporate, London

Fieldfisher's 2019 partner promotions: 

  • Edward Westhead – corporate, London
  • Fabian Reissinger – employment, Munich
  • Felicity Fisher – privacy, Silicon Valley
  • Helen Andrews – construction, Birmingham
  • James Corlett – brand development, Manchester
  • Katharina Weimer – technology, Munich
  • Marsili Hale – finance, London
  • Nick Phillips – real estate, Birmingham
  • Olivia Woolston Morgan – technology, London
  • Peter Sellar – regulatory, Brussels
  • Stephen May – dispute resolution, Birmingham
  • Tracey Wright – dispute resolution, London
  • Amy Reynolds – IP and technology, London
  • Dushal Mehta – personal injury, London

Stephenson Harwood's 2019 partner promotions: 

  • Tom Adams – marine and international trade, London
  • Archie Campbell – finance, London
  • David Dowding – corporate, London
  • Darren Fodey – finance, London
  • Guy Harper – commercial litigation, London
  • Charlotte Heywood – commercial litigation, London
  • Naomi Leach – commercial, technology and outsourcing, London
  • Daniel Margolis – finance, London
  • Chun-Hui Lin – corporate, Beijing and Hong Kong
  • Katherine Liu – regulatory, Hong Kong
  • Yeeling Wan – commercial litigation, Hong Kong
  • Gregory Xu – banking, Singapore
  • Stuart Burrell – marine and international trade, Seoul