Clifford Chance

To be a leading global law firm, we need to be the leaders in inclusion. There is no doubt that it is the richness of our diversity that drives our success and makes us who we are as a global firm. That diversity needs to be nurtured and celebrated and must remain a business imperative.

As events this year have demonstrated, inclusion and equality of opportunity isn’t always the lived experience of many people. While we acknowledge and are proud of the progress we have made, so must we deepen our commitment to forging the positive and inclusive environments we wish to see in our firm, with our clients and in our societies as we look to the future.

Part of that commitment is ensuring that, regardless of the challenges the external environment brings, our focus on inclusion remains steadfast, as it’s during difficult times that a firm’s values really come to the fore. It is also about accountability and understanding that we each have an important role to play in realising our global inclusion strategy to change the rules, change the culture, change the lived experience.

I was particularly proud this year to see the launch of new global and regional targets, for ethnicity, gender and LGBT+, which were introduced to ensure greater ambition, progress and accountability are embedded across the firm’s global network. We have developed regional targets because we understand that different regions, and the markets within them, have different challenges, and a unique set of circumstances, whether it is recruitment, retention or promotion.

These targets will help concentrate our efforts in the right areas, they will encourage transparency and allow us to talk openly and constructively about how we achieve our goals. Together, with all of the fantastic work our people are doing to support our inclusion efforts – some great examples of which are captured in our 2020 Inclusion Report – I believe our new targets will be a powerful catalyst for the change we want to see. I hope they will set a new standard for our industry, and we are committed to doing all we can at a leadership level to make that a reality.