Magic circle firm Linklaters has topped a league table based on a survey of the demographic diversity of 48 leading law firms, published today.

City firms Baker & McKenzie, Norton Rose and Trowers & Hamlins came second, third and fourth respectively.

The league table, compiled annually by the Black Solicitors Network, has previously been based solely on the four diversity strands of ethnicity, gender, disability and sexual orientation.

However, this year it contained a new ‘policy and practice’ category. Firms can now gain ‘policy and practice’ points by showing that they collect information on each of the diversity strands and have appointed a diversity champion from among senior management. Points are also awarded for making formal public statements about the firm’s commitment to diversity and for providing diversity training for staff.

The policy and practice questions appear to favour the larger firms, with Norton Rose and Eversheds gaining the most points, with 480 each, followed by Linklaters with 461.

The policy and practice scores were added to the demographics scores to give each participating firm a Diversity Quotient {copyright}, with Linklaters coming out top with 836 points out of a possible 1,000.

National firm Russell Jones & Walker came top in the ‘overall demographic league table’ for firms, which did not take account of the ‘policy and practice’ aspect.