Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance renews global partnership with The Women's Forum for the Economy & Society

Leading international law firm, Clifford Chance has renewed its global partnership with The Women's Forum for the Economy & Society (WEFCOS), a leading platform featuring women’s voices, views and values on major social and economic issues. The partnership, which was first signed in November 2019, underscores the firm's commitment to showcasing the talent and creativity of women while fostering international cooperation.

Clifford Chance reaffirmed its commitment to WEFCOS by speaking at the Global Meeting, which was held on 18-19 November. Firstly, Dessislava Savova, a Partner in Clifford Chance's Paris office successfully spoke against the notion that 'Technology will save the world' on the New York Times Panel Debate and, secondly, Global Director of Inclusion, Tiernan Brady spoke on the panel titled 'Enabling resilience through women's economic empowerment'.

Clifford Chance also continues its role as an insight partner to the #Women4Business Daring Circle, an innovative cross-industry working group that brings together a network of partners to promote and accelerate diversity in business and supply chains at a global level.

The firm supported the development of the Daring Circle's 'Toolkit for Action', a set of materials designed to advance the development and implementation of best practices for supplier diversity and inclusive sourcing, by drafting the legal framework. The framework outlines the EU legal framework and gives organisations, who want to become more gender inclusive by taking on ‘women-led’ suppliers, practical guidance to spot red flags and understand basic principles of what might be considered positive discrimination or affirmative action.

Similarly, Clifford Chance's procurement team worked alongside other members of the #Women4Business Daring Circle on the development of a new inclusive sourcing benchmarking tool (as part of the 'Toolkit for action') to help businesses examine their sourcing operations and improve opportunities for diverse, women-owned, and women-led businesses in supply chains. Clifford Chance provided feedback on the tool and advised on the legalities around data privacy and collection.

Clifford Chance Global Director of Inclusion Tiernan Brady said, "At Clifford Chance, we believe that we're all the most effective campaigners for change in our own space. What's special about our partnership with the Women's Forum is that it offers the opportunity for people at all levels of our firm to get involved and bring many of our specialist skills to the table. By combining these rich skills with the expertise of others in the Daring Circles, we're laying the most effective ground work for change at a government level and beyond, and we're ambitious about what we can achieve this way - working together for a better, more successful future for all."

Clifford Chance is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion and recently, won Outstanding Diversity and Inclusion Practices in Procurement Team Award at the CIPS Excellence in procurement Awards 2020. The award demonstrates the Firm's recognition of the importance of diversity and inclusion within the firm, as well as the wider procurement profession and supply chain.

For more information on Clifford Chance's diversity and inclusion initiatives, and latest version of its Responsible Business Report, please click here.

About The Women's Forum for The Economy & Society

The Women's Forum for the Economy & Society is the world’s leading platform featuring women’s voices, views and values on major social and economic issues, is dedicated to showcasing the talent and creativity of women while fostering international cooperation. It enables women to gather together, to realise their ambitions, to discuss topics that are no more women’s issues than they are men’s issues – with the critical difference that, in the debates, women are at the front of the room. Based in Paris, France, the Women's Forum for the Economy & Society is a company of the Publicis Group.