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Clifford Chance

Interesting selling points

  • Band 1 across a uniquely broad range of practice areas, including banking, litigation, construction, public international law, employee share schemes, energy, insurance and projects.
  • Worked on some of the most interesting and highest profile matters over the last few years, including advising HSBC on Hong Kong’s first digital bond by a corporate issuer, Pfizer’s agreement with BioNTech SE to co-develop the first UK-approved COVID-19 vaccine, and advising Citi on the sale of Citi Trust’s global fiduciary business to JTC PLC.
  • Commitment to remaining at the forefront of legal technology developments, as demonstrated by its launch of global innovation lab Create+65.
  • Launch of the Learning Internships for Future Trainees Programme, which offers paid professional development experience and non-legal skills training to future trainees in advance of their training contracts.
  • Comprehensive training via the Clifford Chance Academy, including the opportunity to attend client-led seminars, and mentorship provided by supervisors and partners. 
  • Commitment to employees demonstrated by the firm signing the Mindful Business Charter, committing to The Mansfield Rule, and actively engaging in reverse mentorship initiatives.
  • Significant commitment to corporate social responsibility initiatives, with the firm’s employees contributing 74,628 hours of pro bono advice and volunteering in the 2023/24 financial year, and the firm developing a climate change-focused virtual internship (whilst aiming to be net zero by 2030).

We cover these selling points in more detail below, alongside other relevant firm facts and characteristics.

Practice areas / services

Clifford Chance is a full-service law firm, with a broad range of practice areas including:

  • Antitrust 
  • Boardroom risk and reputation 
  • Capital Markets
  • Corporate 
  • Sustainability & ESG 
  • Finance 
  • Intellectual Property 
  • Litigation & Dispute Resolution 
  • Real Estate 
  • Tax, Pensions, Employment & Incentives 
  • Tech Group 
  • US Energy Regulatory and Markets 

Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Clifford Chance its highest ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Baking & Finance: Borrowers: Big-Ticket, Commercial and Corporate Litigation, Competition Law, Construction: Non-contentious, Corporate/M&A: £800 million and above, Restructuring/Insolvency, Asset Finance: Aviation Finance, Banking Litigation, Capital Markets: Debt, Capital Markets: Equity, Capital Markets: Securitisation, Employee Share Schemes & Incentives, Energy & Natural Resources: Power, Financial Services: Contentious Regulatory (Corporates), Financial Services: Non-contentious regulatory, Insurance: non-contentious, Investment Funds: Real Estate, Private Equity: Buyouts: £500 million and above, Projects, Projects: PFI/PPP, Public International Law, Real Estate Finance and Retail: Corporate & Competition. See here for more information

Key sectors / industries

Clifford Chance services a broad range of industries, with some of its highest-value clients operating in the following sectors:

In addition, Clifford Chance services the following industries: Consumer Goods & Retail, Energy & Resources, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Insurance, Real Estate, Industrials, Transport and Mobility and Entertainment & Sports.

Work

Clifford Chance is well-renowned for the quality of advice and work it offers to its lawyers and clients. Some examples of recent projects include:

  • HSBC: Clifford Chance advised HSBC on Hong Kong’s first digital bond by a corporate issuer 
  • Pfizer: in 2020, Clifford Chance advised Pfizer on its agreement with BioNTech SE in order to co-develop the first UK-approved COVID-19 vaccine.
  • Citi: the firm advised Citi on the sale of Citi Trust’s global fiduciary business to JTC PLC.

Offices / global footprint / expansion

Headquarters: London, 10 Upper Bank Street (based in Canary Wharf, Clifford Chance’s headquarters is well-known for its unique swimming pool amenities) 

Offices: Clifford Chance has a large international network of 32 offices based around the world, including in Frankfurt, Moscow and Hong Kong. 

Insights, internships and other opportunities

Clifford Chance offers a range of opportunities for early-career individuals looking to explore the legal industry. These range from an extensive selection of non-selective virtual internships (including through TheForage.com), to the firm’s ‘Clifford Chance Live’ series of seminars and talks for those initially looking to gain high-level insights. For students looking to gain more substantive experience, the award-winning ‘SPARK’ Programme offers first year law students a chance to explore the firm during a five-day paid scheme, in a broad move by the firm away from traditional vacation schemes.

Training contract

Clifford Chance offers a four-seat training contract, with each seat lasting six months. While Clifford Chance is unique in not setting a compulsory placement, trainees are expected to spend at least six months in one of the firm’s three core practice areas: capital markets, corporate and finance. Throughout the scheme, trainees ‘bid’ on their desired seats using a newly designed app, which algorithmically assigns the placements across the firm. Regular feedback is provided throughout the training contract, for example via meetings with monitoring partners, supervisors, and the graduate development team. There is also mentoring and support provided by supervisors, partners and legal support managers, plus the firm has launched the Clifford Chance Academy, which develops innovative learning tools to further develop its lawyers.

Those wishing to work full-time at Clifford Chance can apply to do so through either the traditional training contract, or through ‘IGNITE,’ a unique technology-focused scheme.

Note that the firm has partnered with a select number of organisations and core Clifford Chance business teams to offer paid summer internships to support the professional development of its future trainees. Between accepting an offer and starting a training contract, these offer future trainees the opportunity to develop useful non-legal skills such as marketing, product management and business operation (see here for more information).

Secondments

Trainees at Clifford Chance have the opportunity to apply for either an overseas, client, or pro bono secondment during their training contract, with previous international locations including Milan, Sao Paulo, and Dubai; pro bono secondments including a placement at The Howard League for Penal Reform; and client secondments including placements at Barclays and Goldman Sachs.

Technology and innovation

Clifford Chance is committed to utilising technology to provide clients with flexible and innovative legal services, with related initiatives including:

  • Create+65: As the firm’s internal, global innovation hub, Create+65 offers a space within Clifford Chance for lawyers, clients, and technologists to come together to design efficient and innovative solutions to legal problems.
  • Data Science: Clifford Chance has an internal Data Science team and toolkit, which together work to identify client issues and predict future outcomes, in order to optimise the legal services provided by the firm.
  • CC Dr@ft: The firm’s internally designed document automation platform, CC Dr@ft, allows both internal users (e.g. the firm’s lawyers) and external users (e.g. clients) to quicky and independently generate tailor made legal documents, saving clients time and money.

Corporate social responsibility

Clifford Chance is committed to offering legal assistance free of charge to pro bono clients, providing 74,628 hours of pro bono advice and volunteering in the 2023/24 financial year. Recent work has included:

  • Collaborating with the Office for Veterans’ Affairs to support veteran employment through a variety of seminars and workshops.
  • Providing pro bono advice to support emergency short-term accommodation facilities at the Hobart Women’s Shelter in Tasmania Australia.
  • Supporting children placed at risk by the demands of the pandemic in Eastern Europe, Rwanda and South Africa in conjunction with Hope & Homes for Children.
  • Running a virtual internship focused on climate change (see here).

Diversity and inclusion

Clifford Chance considers inclusion as one of the firm’s core values, and has accordingly undertaken a number of initiatives and programmes to encourage diversity within the firm, including:

  • Partnering with disabled networking hub PurpleSpace to encourage all members of the firm to understand and respect colleagues’ working needs.
  • Establishing the firm-wide Race Equality and Celebrating Heritage (REACH) network, a group committed to encouraging the development and growth of ethnic minority colleagues.
  • Launching an ambitious reverse mentoring programme, which pairs junior lawyers with senior partners to provide insight into life and culture across the firm.