DLA Piper Australia
Seasonal Clerkship Programme - Sydney (Nov 2021)
Opportunity expired
Opportunity details
- Internship, Clerkship or Placement
- 8-10 vacancies
- Apply by 14 Jul 2021
- Start date 20 Nov 2021 - 4 Dec 2021
Our summer clerkship is designed to give you insight into what DLA Piper is really like.
Our programme starts with an induction. This induction provides an advanced introduction to the legal sector and the firms practice groups. It also builds your professional skills and workplace capability. Throughout the induction there will be opportunities to hear from and network with senior members of the firm.
Once you are inducted you'll have the opportunity to complete work placements in our different practice groups. You'll be given real responsibilities. Whether you're attending a court hearing, contributing to a client meeting or assisting a large corporate transaction, you'll have plenty of opportunities to reach your potential.
At the end of the clerkship, participants are assessed for a graduate position.
Reviews
Day to day responsibilities are varied but include matter administration, conducting legal research, completing document review and assisting with ad-hoc tasks - Day-to-day responsibilities are impacted due to the lack of juniors in teams and the absence of paralegals across the country, resulting in graduates at times being asked to work long days and complete tasks that might not be completed by a graduate at a law firm with a team of paralegals etc.
I do not have a lot of autonomy/responsibility, but I don't mind at this stage of my career.
The matters are interesting, but the firm does not have the resources, does not adequately train its juniors and does not have efficient and effective enough processes to run those matters well. Despite having a resource management team, resourcing juniors onto matters isn't methodical and doesn't always take into account capacity, skill-set or interest. My day-to-day responsibilities include filing (electronic documents and court filing), admin tasks, proof reading, research, creating basic court documents and reviewing documents. There seems to be a higher proportion of doc review that juniors are expected to do here when compared to other firms. Although technology does assist, the doc review tasks have been so large that juniors from overseas and from non-litigious teams have had to be resourced onto them.
About the employer
DLA Piper Australia
3.8
1,000 - 50,000 employees
Law
Share our vision. Shape your future. Develop your legal expertise. Sharpen your commercial focus. Become a trusted adviser to clients around the globe
Pros and cons of working at DLA Piper Australia
Pros
The people in this company are probably its greatest asset. People are generally very welcoming and have been very kind to me.
It is able to leverage a global network for its matters and at times can attract very interesting international matters.
Very understanding when it comes to hours, personal health, and very flexible with supporting graduates with study leave.
The offices are very modern, elegant and well-designed. They are new as of 2023.
The firm takes its pro bono commitments seriously and does so at community level and at global level.
Cons
Compared to my friends who are graduates at other firms, it does appear my hours tend to be on the longer side.
There is a lack of juniors in many teams across many offices, resulting in unstable and irregular work-flow patterns.
Internal processes and policies can be bureaucratic and out of line with best practice.
There is no associate level at the firm, and senior associate promotions only happen at 5 years PAE.
Salary was only very recently brought in line with the market rate in my city.