Career development
Qualifying as a lawyer with Clifford Chance is just the first step on your career journey. We're committed to giving you everything you need to build a long-term career with us - training, support, opportunities and responsibility.
Ongoing learning and structured development opportunities are a fundamental part of careers at Clifford Chance and we have developed an approach that enables us to provide consistent levels of training throughout our global network. The Clifford Chance Academy provides all of our people with the education, training and formal development activities needed to provide the best possible service to our clients through a framework that is integrated with the different stages of your career. Courses are run locally, regionally and globally and are integrated with our competency framework to ensure all our people, at every level of development and at every stage in their careers, reach the same standards of skills and knowledge.
Some of the training you will experience as a trainee through the Clifford Chance Academy includes:
- Business awareness including professional standards, time management, financial awareness, risk management and anti money-laundering requirements
- Communication skills including legal writing and professional business communication
- Client focus
- Relationship building and networking including cultural awareness and working with international teams
After qualification you will continue to access training and development through the Clifford Chance Academy and attend development centres that will help you to see how you are doing in relation to our global standards and what you need to focus on to move to the next stage of your career.
Soon after qualifying you will be assigned a career development partner (CDP), a partner within your practice area who will feedback on your performance, serve as a mentor, encourage you to take appropriate training, connect you with other people around the firm and work with you to ensure you receive the exposure you need to take your career in the direction you wish.
Ongoing development
As your experience develops you may decide to apply your skills to a specialist area - or to work overseas, particularly in the emerging markets where our expanding presence means many exciting new opportunities. Alternatively you could go on secondment to a client. Our clients realise how much our lawyers can add through secondments and we value secondments too, not just as a means of strengthening our relationships but also for the great experience it provides. Secondments enable lawyers to see things from a client's perspective, to develop new business skills and get involved in different kinds of work, adding a new dimension to their experience and ultimately enriching both their own careers and our firm.
As a junior lawyer you will continue to benefit from technical and business skills training and as you progress to associate and senior associate levels you will be invited to attend our Lawyer Development Centre and then Senior Development Programme, all delivered through the Clifford Chance Academy. These will help you to acquire the skills and behaviours that you will need to progress your career still further. Your training will increasingly focus on the skills necessary to build and maintain client relationships, market the firm, lead meetings and make presentations and financial and personnel management. These are the skills that will enable you to contribute to the ongoing growth of our business.
Of course, there are many different futures ahead of our people. Today, there are many more Clifford Chance-trained lawyers working in business, finance and law today than currently work for our firm. The quality and impact of our alumni are testament to our emphasis on both professional training and personal development and our international alumni programme, with over 1,000 registered members, provides a valuable link between former and current members of Clifford Chance.
