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Of course statistics can be used to prove anything, but the big statistic that is missing for me is the % of new solicitors entering the profession that are female as of the date at which the average partner in a law firm entered the profession. This would be the real measure of whether there is a bias against progression of women in law firms. For example, if the average age of a partner is 55 what proportion of new solicitors were female 30 or so years ago? If it was 30% then there doesn't seem to be any statistical bias in the gender of partners.

Using the proportion of new female solicitors entering the profession today to compare to the percentage of female partners isn't a fair comparison. There is a delay in making partner from entering the profession and that has to be taken into account.