Bates Wells has promoted three women to its partnership, bringing the total partner headcount to 33, 14 of whom are women. Erica Crump, the firm’s head of Culture and Creative, has also been promoted to senior partnership.

Sung-Hyui Park is at the forefront of the firm’s Purpose and Impact practice, where she supports businesses, charities and social enterprises seeking to have a positive impact through their operations and activities.

Catharina Waller is a dual-qualified chartered trade mark attorney and European patent attorney. She is now one of thirteen part-time partners at the firm.

Martin Bunch, managing partner, said “At Bates Wells, we recognise homegrown talent and believe that flexible working patterns should never be a barrier to elevating excellent lawyers. In our latest gender pay report, we’ve gone beyond the statutory requirement to share our partner pay gap as well as that of our employees. While the statistics show we have much further to go, we’re thoroughly committed to building a senior leadership team that is forward-facing and more representative. We set ourselves a target of having a 40:60 gender split (in either direction) at partner level and I’m delighted we’ve achieved this.

This year’s partner promotions also underline our strategic commitment to build capacity to further help purposeful organisations deliver on their impactful goals.”