Clifford Chance

On the job mentoring and regular appraisals

Everyone receives an annual performance review, at which they are helped to identify training and development needs and set career objectives for the year ahead.

Profile

In order for you to manage your own learning, you need to know what is expected of you. We have developed Profile − a personal career management guide - which we are rolling out to all our associates. This is designed to be specific to a practice area, within a global framework, and will identify the skills and competencies you need to possess at each stage of your career. Your Profile is reviewed regularly and you can use it to track your career progress against the Profile benchmarks and identify any new learning needs.

Profile also acts as the basis for the regular developmental discussions you will have with your supervising partner. We make every effort to ensure that you are actively involved in − and motivated by − your own career progression and the opportunities this brings.

Lawyers Development Centre and Senior Development Programme

We offer off-site business skills development centres for associates at key stages in their career with us. For those at mid-level, the programme we run is designed to help people make the transition from junior to senior associate. For senior associates, it is designed to give them clear guidance on their development needs as they progress to being considered as potential partner candidates.

Trained advisers objectively review specific key skills against the firm's global standards, which will vary depending on the lawyer's seniority. Structured feedback is then provided and a development plan agreed with each individual.

Opportunities

The extent of our global network creates real opportunities for inter-office as well as client secondments. And there are many associates and partners here whose career has led them to work in more than one of our offices on a medium or long term basis.

We aim to offer our associates the opportunity for a long-term career with us, which for some means partnership. However, we recognise that everyone has different career aspirations.

Some people may want to move away from fee-earning work. Where this is the case, there are still opportunities within the firm. We have examples of associates who have transitioned into non client-facing roles within our practice areas - or who have moved away from law completely to work in one of our support functions such as Knowledge Management or Business Development. Where an associate wants to make such a move, we are open to exploring alternative career paths with them.

We realise that not all our lawyers will want to stay here forever. However, being able to say you have worked at Clifford Chance will open doors - both within the legal and other sectors.

We want you to be able to develop in your career and will work with you to identify career opportunities and goals.