Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance signs Race Fairness Commitment

Leading international law firm, Clifford Chance has signed the Race Fairness Commitment (RFC), which mandates exacting data-driven techniques to identify areas of improvement in the firm's culture and hierarchy, to ensure that Black, Asian and ethnic minority lawyers have every chance to lead fulfilling legal careers.

Clifford Chance, one of 16 participating law firms with UK operations, will support the RFC's efforts to carry out close analysis of quantitative data and monitoring of employee lifecycles from recruitment to senior promotion, in order to identify and address the points at which Black and ethnic minority people are falling behind their peers. Clifford Chance is also committed to ensuring that race and racism are better recognised and talked about internally.

Signatories will provide junior ethnic minority lawyers with access to and sponsorship from senior management, and ensure that race and racism are talked about in every induction and exit interview. Interview and offer rates, retention rates, pay and promotion rates will be actively monitored as they relate to ethnic minority lawyers, in line with the RFC.

Clifford Chance UK Managing Partner, Michael Bates said, "Inclusion and diversity are two of our essential values, and as a firm we are committed to delivering an inclusive environment based on mutual respect where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. Realising our commitment to an inclusive workplace by supporting race equality and justice is something I believe to be hugely important for all of us – it's the right thing to do for our colleagues, for our families and for society. I'm proud that we are one of the initial signatories of the Race Fairness Commitment."

Roy Appiah, a Senior Associate at Clifford Chance, "The Race Fairness Commitment is a significant step in helping Black and ethnic minority staff feel they can be themselves from the outset, and not have to earn the right to be themselves. It poses the right question for firms to be asking. That question is: ‘has the firm created an environment that will enable ethnic minority staff to progress?’ rather than ‘what is wrong with the ethnic minority staff?"

Clifford Chance and the other signatories are taking this initiative under the advisement from RARE, the diversity recruitment specialist that has been helping law firms and others recruit talented BAME candidates into tier-one graduate jobs for 15 years. Clifford Chance has a longstanding partnership with RARE and has made 169 training contract offers through the organisation since 2011. Clifford Chance was also one of the first to adopt Rare's Contextual Recruitment System, which identifies standout candidates by not only looking at grades, but how those grades compare to a candidates schooling and background.