Equal opportunities / inclusion

Our teams are committed to equal opportunities, professional integration and solidarity.

We strongly believe that education and training are the primary drivers of equal opportunities. To this end, we have strengthened our commitment to charities working for the success of secondary school pupils and students. We would not consider our involvement with all these associations complete if we did not also offer our support for professional reintegration. Read on to find out more about our partners.

Alliance pour l’Education (Alliance for Education) - United Way

Our law firm has decided to support United Way - Alliance for Education to take part in sustainable educational projects. Our support includes our teams taking part in job fairs, "job discovery" days for secondary schools in the Paris region, welcoming mid-school students as interns for a week, and skills sponsorship.

Alliance for Education - United Way, in a few words

Alliance for Education - United Way is an NGO whose purpose is to promote equal opportunities and school retention in priority and rural areas, to help pupils make informed choices about their future. Everywhere it is deployed in France, the Youth Challenge programme supported by Alliance for Education - United Way promotes equal opportunities in accessing informed career choices, without discrimination.

Its action is based on collective impact: Alliance for Education calls on schools, associations, companies, public players and philanthropists and combines their complementary actions and skills to further their individual impact.

To find out more about Alliance for Education - United Way: https://alliance-education-uw.org/

Article 1

We chose to enter into a partnership with Article 1 in 2021. Our lawyers and support staff are now mentors to students, sharing and passing on their knowledge and connections. Our mentors listen to their mentees' expectations and doubts, and in return share their own experience of university. Their role is to reassure, help move forward, pass on the codes inherent to their various professions, and provide guidance. Drawing on their experience of university, mentors advise on their mentees' career or study choice. Depending on the needs of the mentee needs, this support can be a one-off or last throughout the student's university life.

Article 1, in brief

Article 1 is a charity ("association d'intérêt général") that has been working for over 15 years in favour of young people from working-class backgrounds, so that orientation, success in higher education and professional integration do not depend on social, economic or cultural origin. It is the result of the merger between Passeport Avenir France and Frateli (established respectively in 2004 and 2005), two major French charities aiming to combat unequal opportunities. Article 1's actions are rolled out throughout France via seven regional offices. The charity supports students in their orientation, success and personal development, from high school through to their professional integration, by working in three main areas:

• ORIENTATION: combating self-censorship and accompanying high school students in their choice of higher education.
• SUCCESS: building their academic and professional project with confidence and ambition.
• DEVELOP: realising and revealing their potential to strengthen their employability

For more information: https://article-1.eu/

NQT, Nos quartiers ont des talents

NQT and our law firm have joined forces to help talented youths to find a job. CMS Lefebvre participates in the NQT Talent Hub, a veritable coaching centre for young people, and support NQT in legal and employment law issues in the form of skills sponsorship.

NQT in brief:

Since its launch in 2006, NQT has been actively promoting the professional integration of young graduates (3 years of higher education or more) under the age of 30, from low-income social backgrounds or priority areas, through a system of mentoring by executives or experienced company directors in activity.

Professional mentoring is the sharing of experience and networks between a volunteer professional in activity, and a young graduate facing difficulties in finding a job, to support the latter on his or her path to employment. The charity proposes concrete actions to accelerate the professional integration of these ambitious and deserving young people, and to give everyone the same opportunities to access a permanent and qualified job. Our purpose is to create bridges and forge special links between the business world and young graduates who are the farthest from employment.

For more information: https://www.nqt.fr/

Our mentors have their say:

Being a mentor means working on the CV, motivating, listening to requests, helping to find leads and solutions, and putting the various people involved in the process in touch with each other.

Malika Afnaï, Assistant

Restoring confidence and enhancing the candidate's qualities in their CV to get him or her back on track.

Ludovique Clavreul, Counsel in Employment law

Self-confidence and perseverance are the qualities to be instilled in NQT mentees, to help them reveal their talent to recruiters.

Kawthar Ben Khelil, Counsel in Public law

Mentoring also means making these young people aware that they are the main players in their own success.

Stéphanie Riou-Bernard, Counsel in Tax law

By devoting an hour a month to your mentee, you can already do a lot to help young people decipher codes that they haven't yet mastered, such as preparing for a job interview.

Cécile Champestève, Head of Debt collection

By devoting an hour a month to your mentee, you can already do a lot to help young people decipher codes that they haven't yet mastered, such as preparing for a job interview.

Marc-Etienne Sébire, Partner in capital markets

Découvrez NQT en vidéo :

La Mie de Pain

Our law firm has been involved with La Mie de Pain since 2009, with activities ranging from renovating the kitchen of the young workers' hostel, to financing distributed meals and organising the collection of hygiene products. Although the very essence of La Mie de Pain is to provide assistance to vulnerable people in difficult life situations, the charity also develops an educational programme so that each person can find their place in society. Our volunteers help people in training to prepare their CVs and job interviews, and a team of lawyers supports La Mie de Pain in its tax and legal issues, in the form of skills sponsorship.

What is the purpose of La Mie de Pain?

Founded in 1887, La Mie de Pain is a charity that works "from emergency to integration", supporting people in difficult life situations, including marginalisation and exclusion.

1. Helping excluded people: providing emergency shelter, food and accommodation unconditionally, anonymously and free of charge.
2. Providing social support and helping people find their bearings in society: learning again how to live with others, to communicate, to share... A relationship based on mutual listening and respect, which is essential to develop trust with those we welcome.
3. Steering towards a successful professional integration and a sustainable housing solution. Work is very often the key to integration and, above all, stabilisation for people who have been outcast for varying periods of time. Helping them to regain the desire and opportunity to work, as well as guiding them towards sustainable housing, is part of our daily mission.
4. Changing the way others look at outcast people. Life accidents can happen to anyone. Being listened to, not feeling judged by the person who welcomes you, allows you to find your bearings and climb to your feet faster. Six social establishments (located in Paris).

Concrete actions: welcoming, supporting and aiding integration

These four missions carried out every day by La Mie de Pain give rise to a series of concrete actions embodied by its seven structures, located in the 13^th arrondissement of Paris:

Feeding, housing and providing social support:

• Le Refuge, emergency accommodation centre
• Le Foyer Femmes, emergency accommodation centre (women only)

Aiding in daily life:

• La Plateforme - Relais Social, information and guidance platform
• L'Arche d'Avenirs, an "Espace Solidarité Insertion"-certified day centre

Regaining independence:

• Integration work camps
• La Villa de l'Aube, boarding house and social residence
• "Paulin Enfert" Young Workers' Hostel

Find out more about La Mie de Pain: https://www.miedepain.asso.fr/