Clifford Chance Reviews

Pros

Good team atmosphere, above market average pay, highly skilled partners, not too bad hours (50-60 h per week)

Cons

Partners can be tough on you, chances to partnership are very small

Advice to Senior Management

Enhanced transparency in the past year resulted in higher associate satisfaction

Pros

CC brand is huge; people are really friendly and supportive; top class legal work (if that is what you are interested in)

Cons

long hours, low pay, not meritocratic (everyone paid the same, but good people overworked), some partners show little respect for empoloyees

Advice to Senior Management

change compensation system, look at incentive system, cut deadwood, become less of a sweat shop!

Pros

very friendly atmosphere at work

Cons

long hours; average pay; location

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

Great Possibilities to work on a global scale projects;
Networking opportunities;
Good compensation, above the market average;
Comfortable working conditions;

Cons

Each employee has a highly specified, niche area of expertise / work;
bad work / private life balance;
occasionally, bad corporate aura;
ability for career growth may be stochastic.

Pros

It is a large, global firm with an excellent reputation. It gets the best deals, which can mean much better and more challenging work. The training programmes and knowhow databases are definitely world class. Most of the lawyers are exceptional in their technical capabilities.

Cons

At such a large firm, you are a number. Some of the partners seem to enjoy reminding you that you are completely replaceable at any time. You also end up specialising too much, and there is little room to move so make sure you choose wisely when you go into a team.

Advice to Senior Management

Clifford Chance is an amazing firm with extremely good lawyers. Perhaps a few small changes to management and leadership style would help cut down on its bad reputation as a factory that churns people in and out.

Pros

Good consistent leadership
Strong will for change at leadership level

Cons

Internal politics
Weak will for change at staff level

Advice to Senior Management

Strengthen leadership from the top down, at all levels

Pros

Great training and opportunities for personal development. Worldwide network, opportunities for client secondments and working abroad. Wide range of corporate and banking clients.

Cons

Work life balance. Slightly blue-chip and massive size means less personal touch. Needs to focus more on building FTSE 100 client base.

Advice to Senior Management

US strategy has been flawed. More focus on profitability and strengthening relationships with corporate clients. Need to do more to retain top talent.

Pros

Good pay and training, a decent name for your resume and a great grounding in a commercial/ practical approach to the law

Cons

Grossly excessive hours, significant management and staffing issues, IT unreliability and a very old school mentality can make it a challenging place to work. One could easily argue it's gotten too big in recent years, but still takes on too much work in certain areas for the number of lawyers available.

Advice to Senior Management

Professional service businesses need to be run with the service providers (ie the lawyers at all levels) being acknowledged and respected as the greatest assets of the firm.

Pros

Clifford Chance is a leader in the legal industry, not only in terms of their services to clients, but also in terms of changes and improvements to general management of the firm (education, support staff etc.etc.) they tend to be the first with others following.
Rewards are good.

Cons

Billable hours pressure, though that it is much better than many other firms (particularly US).
London office: massification.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on diversification of your business (in case you hadn´t learnt in the past two years) in order to survive the different cycles of economy. In terms of People Management, make sure to stay at the forefront!