Introduction

Firm at a glance

Where are we now?

Clifford Chance is one of the world’s leading law firms, with legal resources across the key markets of the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

This is our second corporate responsibility (CR) report, covering the period 1 May 2008 to 30 April 2009, during which we operated in 30 offices across 21 countries, with 3,600 legal advisers and 3,200 business services staff.

We have also published additional corporate responsibility information on our website at www.cliffordchance.com/cr

Our annual review 2009 is available to download at www.cliffordchance.com/ar

How did we perform in 2008/09?

Revenues £1,262 million (-5% versus 2008: £1,329 million)

New offices opened in Abu Dhabi and Kyiv and a ‘best friends’ relationship formed with
AZB & Partners in India, a licence to practice local law granted in Singapore and a full merger with Badea & Asociatii completed in Bucharest

Pro bono and community hours 91,034 (+15% versus 2008: 79,062)

Signed  The UN Global Compact

In a downturn, how do you keep raising the bar?

Last year, we published our first corporate responsibility report. We said we aimed to exceed the expectations of our clients, our people and the communities around us. And we set out our strategy for achieving that.

Since then, the downturn has moved some of our goalposts. We’ve had to tighten budgets, and ask some people to leave the firm. But the framework we put in place has helped all our offices to address CR more effectively.

In the past year we’ve made encouraging progress towards most of our targets while experiencing a few real disappointments. In this, our second report, we look back on the year’s achievements and setbacks.

But most importantly, we look ahead and reconfirm our determination to be the legal profession’s benchmark for CR. That ambition is undiminished.