Asher Mohammed: Elevate your career with Clifford Chance’s LIFT programme

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Nov 01, 2021

Written By Emma Finamore

As most employers will tell you, first-hand experience is often just as important as academic achievement when it comes to finding the right staff for a job. This applies in the legal sector too, and Clifford Chance have developed an industry-first internship scheme recognising just that. Their LIFT (Learning Internships for Future Trainees) programme gives future trainees first-hand business experience and the opportunity to develop applicable non-legal skills, to ensure they hit the ground running in their training contracts and to support them in their future careers as lawyers.

Developing useful non-legal skills

“Going into LIFT and indeed my legal career more widely, I’m interested in how business interests can intersect and complement social impact interests,” explains Asher Mohammed, a future trainee with Clifford Chance who has taken part in the LIFT programme. “I think Law has huge potential to positively shape society in the 21st century and transcend a traditional business focus. As someone who spent, and does spend, a large time working in the politics ‘space’, social impact considerations are crucial for me as a future lawyer.”

Asher says – as someone who’d not studied law – the experience gave him a better understanding of some of the transferrable skills required to be a lawyer, from the importance of process and attention to detail, to communicating with supervisors and colleagues, and working with efficiency. But the most vital thing he learnt during the programme was the importance of feedback.”I was working under some really great supervisors who gave me detailed feedback throughout my internship,” he explains. “I gained an appreciation for this mechanism, something I know is an intrinsic part of the training contract.”

A wide range of real-world projects

Sitting in the Legal team, Asher describes being given the exciting opportunity to work on a variety of areas, such as disability rights, the housing sector and facial recognition, as well as undertaking legal research, providing case summaries, and producing Freedom Of Information requests. Unlike most of his legal work experience before, these were real cases, unlike the fictional, hypothetical ones found in exercise books.

Asher interned with Liberty – the National Council for Civil Liberties – as part of LIFT, having keenly followed the organisation since he was a teenager, observing their influence and impact in the human rights space: “When I saw that there was an opportunity to intern at Liberty and in particular the Legal team, I was naturally drawn to the role.” The programme at Clifford Chance gave him the opportunity to assist them in a very real way, which added to the experience.

“There’s an added level of responsibility, enthusiasm and interest when you know you’re contributing to work which affects real people,” he explains. “My supervisors were very encouraging of me to meet with wider teams at Liberty. I met with almost every team at the charity and so gained an appreciation of the charity structure, how different teams collaborate and the purpose and ethos of Liberty.

“I most enjoyed being able to do real-life legal work which was driven by social impact. I was able to apply some of my experience in politics through the prism of law, which was a really enjoyable intersection between my interests. And of course, being able to be physically in the office was amazing. I think for students, we have really missed the benefits of in-person learning and working.”

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Applying the LIFT experience to a training contract

As Asher describes, there is plenty that LIFT participants can apply from the programme to their training contracts. For him, this will be seeking feedback from supervisors, but also the direction in which he wants to take his career. “Ensuring you ask lots of questions, meet and communicate about deadlines, being efficient with your work,” he says, of what he will take to his training contract.

“But I think most of all, I will take back a real interest in human rights and civil rights work and maybe join Liberty for secondment one day.”

Why Clifford Chance?

As well as a great experience with LIFT, Asher has built up a personal relationship with Clifford Chance over the years, which is another reason why he chose their training contract over other offers. “My first corporate exposure was with Clifford Chance through their PRIME (now Access) scheme when I was in Year 12,” he remembers. “The firm and its graduate recruitment team really invests in its young people and ensures they are well supported throughout their early education. I was able to meet some lawyers and people at the firm who really encouraged me and at times mentored me as I began university.

“For me, whilst of course there’s plenty of reasons from a commercial law perspective why I chose Clifford Chance, the greatest reason was indeed my personal relationship with the firm.”

Limitless development

“I think one of the biggest pieces of advice I always follow is that the learning and education process should never end for any professional,” Asher adds, demonstrating the forward-looking spirit of the LIFT programme.

“Despite receiving a training contract, the breadth of skills I am yet to develop is limitless.”

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