Clifford Chance creates European scholarship to encourage diversity

Clifford Chance has created a scholarship aimed at law students in Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands to encourage the attraction of diverse talent. The initiative is part of the Race Equality and Celebrating Heritage (REACH) program, and is part of its strategic plan focused on improving inclusion and encouraging the Clifford Chance team to represent social and economic diversity in Europe.

The scholarship, whose amount is 10,000 euros for each winning candidate and will be awarded annually, is aimed at university students with a diverse cultural or socioeconomic background, who are in the last two years of their studies in Law, and are interested in pursuing a career in a law firm.

In this first call, it has been awarded to three students in Spain, the Netherlands and France. In awarding the scholarship, the firm has been especially interested in those candidates who were the first generation of university students in their families. This scholarship is not a temporary aid, but rather aims to create a lasting bond with the candidates -even if it is not awarded- to build a pool of diverse talent with which it can collaborate in the future.

Samir Azzouzi, partner in the M&A/Corporate area, and an active member of the REACH network, comments: “We are pleased to announce that Mimouna El Beghdadi Maaroufi, a student at Esade Law School, has been the winner in Spain of this first edition. We hope that with this contribution we can help her access greater opportunities as part of the development of her academic career to achieve her professional goals and may her example inspire many other students to apply for this scholarship in the next call.”

The next edition of the scholarship for students in Europe for the promotion of diversity will be held in the fall of 2022.