Macfarlanes emphasizes diversity goals

Macfarlanes emphasizes diversity goals

Top London firm proves more successful at meeting new targets than a snapshot would indicate as it now has two women among its eight-strong round of candidates

The company admits it has a long way to go in its drive to improve its diversity, as measured by a new set of targets. Two women have been promoted in an eight-strong partnership round.

Despite the firm's largest promotion group to date since nine lawyers were made partners in 2019 a year ago, only 25 percent of promotion candidates were women, down from last year when three out of five promotable candidates were women.

Following a long list of diversity targets, the firm announced the promotions that it wants to achieve 35 percent female partners and 10 percent, ethnic minority partners, by 2030, with an interim goal of 30 percent female partners and 7 percent ethnic minority partners by 2026.

The company's spokesperson said that the improvements are part of a longer-term mission and in that context, the firm is doing better than one-year snapshots would indicate.

The firm's spokesperson said that 37 percent of partner promotions in the last three years have been to women, while 6 percent came from ethnic minorities and the firm still has some work to do in that area.

An important part of fostering a diverse workplace is being transparent about our challenges, actions and progress, the spokesperson said.

Charles Maydon Grace and Harriet Miller were the firm's two most successful women candidates this year, who was promoted to private client and investment management groups, respectively. According to Linkedin profile, Miller joined Macfarlanes in 2010 and has been a senior counsel since 2021, while Grace trained and qualified at the firm between 2011 and 2013.

As a specialist in tax, trust law, HMRC enquiries and estate planning, Grace advises international families, trust companies, trustees, family offices and trustee companies. As Jonathan Conder prepares to move to Stephenson Harwood, the former head of the firm's private client department welcomes her to the firm's prestigious private client group.

Similarly, Miller's practice is focused on all aspects of private funds, with a specialization in fundraising matters, in which she represents both fund managers and investors. In addition to her tenure at Macfarlanes, she has also been supported to investment firms as a legal advisor, including Skandia Investment Group and Old Mutual Global Investors, as well as serving for seven months as an intern at Nixon Peabody in New York, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The Macfarlane M&A practice's flagship practice saw three promotions this year, going to Thomas French, Nicholas Page and Tim Redman. Rasmus Berglund, dealing with tax issues and Andrew Hughes representing real estate practices received the same recognition.

The firm is delighted to announce the promotion of eight new partners, said senior partner Sebastian Prichard Jones. We look forward to continuing to expand our practice areas with this group and look forward to their contributions to our growth in the years to come."

In 2021, Macfarlanes reported an increase of 9.2 percent in its profit per equity partner (PEP) to £2m along with a 10 percent increase in annual revenue to $260m. It has two offices located in London and Brussels.

It has been a male-dominated partnership round at Slaughter and May this month, with just one woman making the cut from an eight-strong cohort. This is a year after Magic Circle announced that 40 percent of equity partner promotions worldwide would be women by 2027.

Slaughters and Macfarlanes both became founding members of Legal CORE, an initiative created by Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills and Norton Rose Fulbright to address the underrepresentation of blacks, Asians and minority ethnic groups within the legal profession.