Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance's Matthew Layton appointed to Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession Advisory Board

Clifford Chance Managing Partner Matthew Layton has been appointed to the advisory board of The Center on the Legal Profession (CLP) at Harvard Law School, which seeks to advance the modern practice of law by increasing understanding of the structures, norms and dynamics of the global legal profession.

Layton, who was appointed Managing Partner in 2014, is the first head of one of the UK's elite law firms to sit on CLP's advisory board, joining other leading figures from across the legal world.  Layton will lead Clifford Chance's involvement in CLP's ground-breaking research into areas such as disruptive innovation in law.

David B. Wilkins, Lester Kissel Professor of Law, Vice Dean for Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession, and Faculty Director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School comments: " I'd like to welcome Matthew, with his wealth of experience, to our Board and look forward to working closely with him in the years ahead. At a time when the legal profession is in a period of stress and transition, it is vital that we bring together all the talents to better understand the challenges we face and how we should meet them."

Layton comments: "I am delighted to be joining the board of CLP and look forward to collaborating with colleagues from across the profession as we work to develop the future of international legal practice in a rapidly changing world. I believe we have an obligation to continue to evaluate how law firms best provide their services and focus on adding value to clients. I anticipate that the dialogue and research facilitated by CLP will offer important insights into this question."

The partnership with Harvard's CLP also provides Clifford Chance the opportunity to participate in and gain access to the extensive research projects that CLP conducts, for instance, in the areas of teamwork and collaboration, and diversity and inclusion as well as disruptive innovation.

Clifford Chance has been at the forefront of the invention of the modern law firm. It was one of the first law firms to invest in an offshore centre (in India) and more recently became the first international law firm to run continuous improvement projects on a large scale. In the last year the firm has trained over 800 people in continuous improvement techniques and last year ran over 100 projects in 25 offices.