Tips on gaining graduate/seasonal employment with top tier law firms

Many of my colleagues and peers have often asked me about ways of gaining employment within the top law firms in Australia. Although I will be focusing on the Australian Legal profession, the tips are wide ranging and can be applied to many other common law jurisdictions as well as other professions. I thought this topic as appropriate since many students in Victoria will be applying for graduate and seasonal employment at law firms start 2009.

I will begin by giving a little commentary on the current legal profession in Australia. Currently, Australia is trying to create a unified legal profession where lawyers in Melbourne or in any other state for that matter of fact will be able to practice unrestricted in all States and Territories in Australia. And as such, practical legal training will become the main path to admission. Law firms have adapted themselves to integrate the programs provided by institutions such as the College of Law into an in-house graduate training program, also known as traineeship (formally known as Articles, however, the two are quite differences). Nowadays, graduate lawyers not only have to contend with billing clients and building up a profitable practice but also undertaking assessments to gain admission to practice.

In Victoria, the number of law schools have increased significantly in the last 20 years from a mere 2 (Melbourne and Monash) to more than 5(Deakin, Latrobe and Victoria). As such, the amount of graduates chasing a job at one or many of the country's top firms have become incrementally more competitive. Even local firms now receive well over 200 applications for graduate programs. However, throughout my years working in both HR as well as law, I have found a few back doors into many of the top firms in the country.

More and more, seasonal clerkship is becoming the primary recruitment method for law firms as it gives them an opportunity to see whether their seasonal clerks are 'culturally fit'. In Sydney for example, all but about 3 of the reputable firms recruit solely from their seasonal clerkship batch for their graduate intakes. As such, the best way to attain a graduate position is to gain employment as a seasonal clerk. In any application, there are only 4 things which law firms will assess applicants on, three of which are based purely on the applicant's application. They are, academics, professional experience, extra curricula interests and cultural fit, the latter of which is assessed only at the interview stage. When firms talk about hiring 'well rounded' individuals, they are referring to the above 4 assessment criteria. So how then do I get a seasonal clerkship you may ask? The first point of call for many law students is to rely on their Law Society's Seasonal Clerkship or Career Guides. Although such guides provide a very useful source of information, they do not provide the whole picture. One should always do their own law firm research because the firms listed will only be the top to mid tier firms and as everyone has access to such information, competition is fierce. A good technique is typing 'seasonal clerkship' or 'summer/winter clerkship' into google and having a look at some of the firms which aren't listed in your career guides.

The truth is, the sooner you play the clerkship game, the better. I got my first clerkship at the end of my first year of law school having only done 3 law units. How did I do this? I did my research. I clerked at Freshfields Drew and Napier in the Singapore office. Why Singapore you might ask? Singapore and Hong Kong run clerkship programs especially targeted at Australian Law students normally around late December or early January. The application is much more relaxed. All I did was send my resume and my transcript to them, answered a reply email and then got my offer. How easy is that! No interview, no stress. The downside is that you would have to incur most of the expenses. They do pay you but not enough to live their for 1 month. Many law schools have grant programs for student organised internships so consult with your faculty to see if such programs exist.

Another useful tip is to apply to top-tier equivalent firms. Now what do I mean by top tier equivalent? Top-tier equivalent means firms which were started by lawyers/Partners from top tier law firms. An examples is say a firm like Chang, Pistilli & Simmons where all the partners came from a top tier firm and have since banded together to set up their own practice. Usually, such firms are not well known to law students but are well known within the legal profession. The quality of deals undertaken is equivalent, if not better than their top tier counterparts and junior lawyers are able to gain much more guidance and support in their earlier years at the firm.

If, however, you still strive for a job at the country's top, it is still not entirely impossible. A good example to illustrate my point would be to use the law firm Freehills, which is well renowned as one of the top 3 law firms in Australia as well as ranking number 1 for their Mergers and Acquisitions work in the last few years. It is no surprise then, that Freehills would receive hundreds if not thousands of applications for their graduate/seasonal programs. A clever way to get around it would be to look at its subsidiary companies. Freehills has a subsidiary company called Greenwoods & Freehills which specialise entirely on tax. The graduate program they run is the same as the Freehills program as you will be in the same group as the Freehills graduate lawyers in training but competition wise, you are in a much better position to get an interview this way. You can also apply to both firms as their HR department is mutually exclusive so if you're luck you might be called into interview twice, doubling your chances on attaining that dream job.

So all in all, come application time, my point to applicants is to be smart and make sure you do your research. Research for me normally begin at the end of semester 2 exams when you have the Christmas holidays. I hope this helps. If you have any questions, I would be glad to help. Just shoot me an email. Cheers