We took the decision to be open about our Gender Pay Gap figures before we were legally required to report on these statistics. We have been tracking them for the last four years and have produced them for both our staff and our partnership.
The overall gender split of the firm remains biased towards women at 62% female and 38% male. We still have significantly more women employees (67%) in upper middle positions than men (33%). At the upper level, the split has changed from 45% men and 55% women in 2019 to 49% men and 51% women in 2022. It has then changed again to 55% men and 46% women in 2023.
We currently have 52 partners in total, including our consulting partners. 72% of our partners are men and 27% are women. In our lower quartile our partnership is 54% men and 46% women, reflecting the balanced male/female appointments we have made in recent years. We have made strong improvements which reflect our commitment to having a diverse partnership.
We are not evenly split in our upper quartiles. This mainly reflects the fact that most upper quartile partners have been at the firm for over 20 years and at the time they joined the firm, there were far fewer women studying STEM qualifications and entering the patent profession.
Evolving the make-up of our senior partnership will therefore take time, as the partners in our balanced lower quartiles gain seniority. It is important to note that our partnership continually expands, rather than specific spaces being allocated or a 'one in one out' system being in place; this also affects the rate gender balance can change.