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In our most recent Annual review we concentrate on the opportunities open to our clients and, as a result, to our firm in a changing world.

In this, our fourth Corporate responsibility (CR) report, we also focus on opportunities: considering how the investments we make in support of our wider social responsibilities open up possibilities for a broader set of stakeholders.

We look at the opportunities we are putting in place for people to build their skills and develop their careers. We provide details of the opportunities we are creating for communities to access the basic necessities of life. We also highlight where we are advising clients on seizing the opportunities presented by clean technology and renewable energy, while we seek greater energy efficiency in our own operations.

The consistency of our focus on these three areas – people, community, environment – is enabling us to increase the alignment between our business strategy and our corporate responsibility programme. For example, we are finding more opportunities to partner with clients in giving others a chance. Last year, we worked with 19 clients on 31 pro bono or community outreach collaborations. The inaugural Clifford Chance Access to Justice Award also featured a panel of clients who judged a high number of quality entries before awarding £50,000 and 500 pro bono hours to PLACE in Sudan.

We maintain a strong commitment to the principles of the UN Global Compact and are pleased to report good progress against our CR targets.

Two years ago, for instance, we outlined an aspiration to double the proportion of women in the partnership to 30% from around 15%. While there is still some way to go before we achieve that, one-third of the lawyers that we promoted to the partnership in 2010/11 were women.

We have also performed strongly versus our targets for the environment as well as for pro bono and volunteering, which totalled more than 58,000 hours during 2010/11.

There is never room for complacency, as events during the year demonstrated. The earthquake in Japan devastated communities there. Clifford Chance provided financial help and we are proud of how our network came together to support colleagues in Tokyo, who maintained continuity of service to clients throughout the disaster.

No doubt there will be new challenges and opportunities in the year ahead but our clear strategy, robust financials and strong governance equip us to meet these with confidence. In the meantime, we continue to build a global corporate responsibility programme that is among the best in our industry. Our progress, in no small part, is down to the hard work of members of the firm. We thank them for their support, enthusiasm and unflinching commitment.

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