A parliamentary select committee has accused Allen & Overy of not taking diversity seriously after the firm refused to disclose its gender pay gap data.

As RollOnFriday revealed last week, the chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, Labour MP Rachel Reeves, wrote in May to the five Magic Circle firms demanding they disclose details of their partnership pay gap. A&O declined.

Today the committee published the five firms' responses and Reeves blasted A&O. “Allen & Overy can’t even come clean on its partner data now", she said. "It’s easy to talk the talk on diversity and inclusion, but if a business is dragging its feet on providing even basic information about its gender pay gap then it begs the question of how seriously it takes its responsibilities to valuing all its staff and how dedicated it is to committing to promote female associates to partner level".

Reeves launched her attack although firms are under no duty to include partner data, and despite A&O committing to disclose its figures later this year. Alluding to the failure of parliament to draft appropriate legislation, but shifting the blame onto A&O nonetheless, Reeves said, "It is clear there are weaknesses in the reporting requirements, which firms such as Allen & Overy have been able to exploit". She said the committee "shall be looking at what recommendations we can make to ensure that businesses are taking their responsibilities on fair pay seriously”.

Allen's essay was not up to scratch.

An insider told RollOnFriday that the letters were drafted with one eye on their expected publication. They show four of the firms bending over backwards to provide the overall salary and bonus gender pay gap figures. Here's how A&O stonewalled those nosy MPs:



An A&O insider told RollOnFriday that the firm knew the rough shape of the figures they would be unveiling, and that they weren't out of step with those disclosed by the other firms. The rest of the Magic Circle's figures spanned just six percentage points. Linklaters' mean gender pay gap for all staff including partners was 60.3%, followed by 60.4% at Freshfields, 61.8% at Slaughter and May, and 66.3% at Clifford Chance.

A spokesman for Allen & Overy told RollOnFriday, "We gave therm the information that we had, but they also wanted information which we didn't have and weren't able to calculate in the time available".