Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance has been ranked number one overall in a survey on the ratio of female employees at law firms in Japan. Conducted by Innovation Platform for Business Legal, the results were announced at the end of 2021 and found that the firm's Tokyo office had a female to male ratio of 38.9% as of January 2021. This figure also represented an increase from last year, when the firm had 35%.

Reiko Sakimura, co-Managing Partner of the Tokyo office, welcomed the results, saying: "We are delighted to have come first on this list. Our Accelerate Committee in Tokyo are leading the charge and we are committed to being at the front of the legal sector on inclusion and this year's results on our female representation in the office reflect well on that commitment. We are equally delighted with the increase in our own performance, increasing 4% year on year. Inclusion is both a core value for us and a key business imperative as we try to provide the most innovative solutions to our clients."

Global Director of Inclusion Tiernan Brady added: "We are really proud of these results. They are a reflection on the leadership of Reiko, Leng-Fong and our Accelerate network in Tokyo, led by Natsuko Sugihara and all their work to deliver on our inclusion values. The results are all the more impressive in the Japanese legal sector where under 20% of lawyers are women."

The survey looked at the overall ratio of female employees at 50 international and local law firms in Japan. It found that the ratio of women exceeded 30% in only four of the firms, including Clifford Chance (the other firms being Abe, Ikubo and Katayama Law Office, White & Case, and Morrison & Forster).