Diversity

Clifford Chance is a diverse working environment. Our rapid 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. But diversity isn't just good for our business - it's also right for our business and 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.

Accessing legal careers

We are focusing on initiatives that aim to raise the aspirations of students in parts of our community that have not historically 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 aim high and apply to leading universities and employers.

Career development

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 - all Arcus events are open to all partners and employees, irrespective of sexual orientation. 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 the firm 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.

The firm 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