Not so, on the face of it…

Despite their best efforts and moves to up the ante – see A&O’s recent fairer-sex drive – City firms still don’t have what it takes.

According to Legal Week’s latest research, regional law firms are outperforming their City counterparts when it comes to nurturing female talent. Female promotions in the regions are in the high 30s in percentage terms compared to teens in the City.

Even further afield,  anecdotally it appears that at many women in Indian corporate law have already achieved much greater visibility than their London City or New York Wall Street counterparts. At firms, particularly those with female role models at the top, the ratio of men to women at the partnership level is higher than in the West. (Legally India)

So there’s plenty of inspiration out there for City firms to look to, from pick-up artists in the regions to eastern techniques. But, however they choose to improve their performance, they’d better get on with it – Clifford Chance managing partner David Childs recently admitted that the current state of affairs was “not good enough”.

And Pfizer don’t have a quick fix for this one.