City giant Allen & Overy last month launched an alumni programme that is open to former and current staff for catching up with old work colleagues and also business networking.

Some 11,000 alumni and staff have access to a Web site enabling them to search the international network of registered individuals, and view news and information about alumni and alumni events around the world.


As part of the drive ‘to strengthen its global community’, the firm will also advertise internal job vacancies and alumni will be able to post roles available in their current companies.


Allen & Overy: responding to the 'global nature of business'

The programme is one of only a handful to have been formally established by international legal practices, but the firm claimed that it is the only international practice to open its alumni programme to both alumni and current employees, across all disciplines, regions and functions.

Senior partner Guy Beringer said: ‘The inclusiveness of the programme… is a mark of the importance which we place on integrating the firm. We look forward to supporting the Allen & Overy network and to encouraging these important relationships to flourish.’


The firm said a key driver behind the initiative is ‘the desire to respond to the increasingly global nature of business today, which is resulting in growing numbers of individuals moving abroad to take up opportunities in overseas jurisdictions’.


Jocelyn Court, a former Allen & Overy lawyer who now works at the Hong Kong office of a leading investment bank, said the programme recognised the increased opportunities available to lawyers to practise outside their home jurisdiction.


‘Having lived in Paris, Singapore and Hong Kong, it is often difficult to keep in contact with colleagues and for anyone new to a region this will definitely prove to be a useful networking tool, both in a business and social context,’ she said.


LINKS: www.allenovery.com/alumni