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How do law firms judge who are the best candidates for promotion? So long as they value high personal billings to the exclusion of all other equally important ways in which a potential partner brings value to the firm then nothing will change. It is time law firms took a hard look at the unsavoury truths which lie beneath superficially impressive personal billings (writing off the time and minimising the contribution of other fee earners, selfishly hogging work to the detriment of good service to clients, over-recording time, refusing to contribute to non-chargeable activities which won't cover them in glory such as supervision and mentoring, overseeing pro bono work, referring new clients to other departments.... the list goes on). And then even when a woman defies all the odds and equals the billing of a man (whilst doing huge amounts of extra unacknowledged non-chargeable work) she will be turned down on the basis she doesn't have enough 'gravitas'. It is undeniable discrimination and yet some people are trying very hard to continue justifying it.