Clifford Chance

As a leading global law firm, our people are at the heart of everything we are and everything we do. Our desire to excel on behalf of our clients; the quality of the work that we attract; our international capabilities; our collaborative and supportive working culture; our innovative mindset, they are all driven by our people. Despite testing times our ambition, culture and principles remain the same and we continue to invest in developing and attracting talent.

At Clifford Chance we share the view that collaboration is what delivers results; that our success can only be measured by what we achieve for our clients; and that diversity is essential to our success. From different backgrounds, countries and cultures, we work together. Together we are Clifford Chance.

Our firm

Our people and their ability to combine effectively across practice areas and jurisdictions drive our success and enable us to attract stimulating work around the world. Our rapid growth has fostered a pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit that encourages our people to be both bold and innovative, and a culture that emphasises the fundamental importance of teamwork. From exposure to the highest quality work and headline-making deals to the breadth of our pro bono and community programmes we offer the prospect of a truly outstanding legal career.

A career at the forefront of the legal profession is demanding. Our clients come to us because we set ourselves very high standards and it is precisely that challenge that motivates and inspires our people. But at Clifford Chance, we have gone to great lengths to create an environment and foster a culture that supports you in meeting the challenges of your work and which enables you to develop to your full potential.

Our firm is built on six global practice areas – Banking & Finance; Capital Markets; Corporate; Litigation & Dispute Resolution; Real Estate and Tax; Pensions and Employment – and as a trainee you will experience working in at least three of these areas during your two-year training contract.

Diversity

Our growth and history of strategic mergers have brought together people from around the world with different perspectives, and we have found our cultural diversity to be a great advantage in developing solutions and advice for our clients and creating an environment where ideas and opinion can flow freely. But diversity isn't just good for our business – it's also right for our business. We are committed to further widening access to the legal profession, and ensuring that all of our people enjoy the same opportunities to develop lasting, rewarding careers.

Access to legal careers

We are focusing on initiatives that aim to raise the aspirations of students in parts of our community that historically have not entered our profession. We are engaged with:

• Target Chances – an annual open day for ethnic minority students.
• BLD (Black Lawyers Directory) – we sponsor the "Today's Children, Tomorrow's Lawyers" programme, aimed at ethnic minority and disadvantaged 13-17 year olds and support BLD's Black Letter Law publication.
• ACDiversity – we provide mentors across the firm and hold an open day for students from African and Caribbean communities in London.
• Pure Potential – we support a series of events that provide help and advice about higher education and careers to over 10,000 state sector pupils who are encouraged to raise their aspirations and apply to leading universities and employers.

Career development

At Clifford Chance, we are committed to ensuring that all our people benefit from the same opportunities to enjoy rich, fulfilling long-term careers and have implemented a number of initiatives to support this goal:

• Diversity training – all new joiners participate in diversity training to help them integrate, work with and be sensitive to people from all backgrounds, faiths, and lifestyles – whether clients or colleagues.
• CC Women – our Women's Network aims to work towards retaining a greater proportion of women at all levels in the Firm, advancing the careers of women and providing business opportunities through internal and external networking.
• Arcus – our London networking group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) colleagues aims to encourage an inclusive culture throughout the firm and enable colleagues to be open and out. Arcus was established in late 2007 to provide a forum to discuss LGBT issues and create a sense of community. Arcus, named from the latin term for rainbow, also encompasses a range of pro bono initiatives relating to civil liberties and human rights of LGBT people, such as the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA).
• Employers' Forum for Disability – we are members and host a forum event each year.

In addition, Clifford Chance supports a number of initiatives to ensure that colleagues from all religious faiths can work effectively within our teams whilst observing the requirements of their faiths. These include an all-faith prayer room and a holiday trading scheme, which allows colleagues to buy additional leave to observe religious holidays.

Clifford Chance is a member of the Professional Services Diversity Forum and Opportunity Now, an organisation for employers committed to creating an inclusive workplace for women. Further details of our diversity programmes can be found at www.cliffordchance.com/cr