LONDON – Clifford Chance has announced sweeping targets for increasing the number of female, LGBT, and minority ethnicity attorneys among its ranks worldwide.

The London-based firm hopes to have at least 40% female and at least 40% male partners worldwide by 2030, and at least 3% LGBT partners by 2025. The firm’s goals are further broken down by region, where targets are based on specific areas that need improvement.

“If we really believe inclusion is a core value and economic imperative, now is the time we should be doubling down,” said Tiernan Brady, the firm’s global head of inclusion.

The announcement comes as Big Law firms in the U.S. continue to lag behind corporate counterparts when it comes to diversity. Women make up just over 20% of equity partners, and only 7.6% of equity partners are people of colour, according to a December 2019 report by the National Association for Law Placement.

Law firms have traditionally had a poor track record when it comes to generating real diversity gains, though efforts have grown in recent years though initiatives like Diversity Lab’s Mansfield Rule, now in its fourth iteration.

In the Americas and Continental Europe, Clifford Chance has set a goal of increasing the proportion of female partners by 35% by 2025 and 100% by 2030. In the Americas region, women currently make up 17.6% of the partnership. By 2030, the firm hopes that will be 35.2%.