London legal firms are facing pressure to promote more women and people from ethnic and other minorities.

The Financial Times reports big firms are behind other sectors in terms of diversity within their workforce, and needed to do better to improve business.

Simon Davies, managing partner of the second-largest London firm Linklaters, told the FT they needed to do better as clients are increasingly requesting diversity statistics when they make their pitches.

He cited the “helpful” impetus from customers such as JPMorgan, the US bank, saying: “If clients are pushing for things it’s more tangibly a business need.”

Mr Davies said the firm’s work would benefit from input apart from simply the “male Caucasian” view, giving as an example the rescue of a large company, where women lawyers might “better understand” the impact on families of job losses.

The FT states the big firms accept the starkness of diversity statistics that show women accounting for 50 per cent of trainees but rarely more than 20 per cent of partners.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer says it is trying to “improve its understanding of what practices and cultures can be changed to encourage female lawyers to stay longer”.

The news comes as the Financial Times also reports a gay lawyer effectively went “back into the closet” during the start of his career due to fears that he would be mistreated or marginalised.

Part of that discomfort, he says, stemmed from the lack of visibility of gay and lesbian colleagues and role models in the legal profession.

He told the FT: "It's about creating a workplace environment that’s inclusive of all different groups. It's up to the employee as to whether they decide to participate in any kind of network."