Herbert Smith Freehills
2021/2022 Vacation Clerkship Program - Brisbane (Oct 2021)
Brisbane
Opportunity expired
Opportunity details
- Internship, Clerkship or Placement
- Apply by 13 Aug 2021
- Start date 6 Oct 2021
The Opportunity
Finding the right fit for you is key to deciding where to start your legal career. Since working together is a good way to get to know each other, we offer a range of summer and winter clerkships in each of our Australian offices. We encourage students to participate in our vacation clerkship program and we fill the majority of our graduate positions through this program.
Spend part of your vacation with us and you’ll get a great understanding of how we go about meeting the needs of our clients. The program includes a detailed introduction to the firm and to each practice group, as well as the opportunity to work with our legal teams on real matters. We offer two clerkships in Brisbane per year, commencing from around November/December 2021 and June/July 2022.
Skills, Experience and Qualifications
We recruit people with the desire and ability to be exceptional, commercial lawyers. This means that we look for more than just a great academic record and strong technical aptitude. We seek people who are curious, empathetic and understand the importance of building relationships with clients and colleagues. We also look for an international mind-set and a desire to work within our global network, not just one office.
Diversity & Inclusion
We aim to have a diverse, innovative culture where high performance, client focus and highly engaged people are our differentiator and where we celebrate the uniqueness of our people. Our firm is made up of people with a range of experience and backgrounds. We strive to ensure that our inclusive environment means our people feel valued and able to perform at their best by being their authentic selves at work. We know that our future success not only depends on being innovative and progressive in the changing legal market but, most importantly, on our people feeling engaged.
We understand that our people have commitments and personal interests outside of work and we strive to create an agile working environment based on mutual trust and respect, in which people can perform at their best whilst maintaining sustainable balance across their work and non-work lives.
Please note:
Applications will only be considered for one office of Herbert Smith Freehills, this includes globally. Please only make an application to the office where you intend to start your career as a graduate.
To be eligible to apply, candidates need to have either commenced or recently completed an Australian Bachelor's degree in law or Juris Doctorate.
Applications will close on Friday 13th August 2021, 17:00pm EST.
Hiring criteria
- No experience required
- Law, Legal Studies & Justice +more
- Bachelor or higher
Reviews
My role has, essentially, been to act as a sponge. Take in as much about the culture of the team and the firm as I do about the law and the work. My day to day responsibilities would include managing email correspondence and document management systems, doing drafting or proofing work, and helping out other Brisbane and interstate teams that are stretched with time intensive work in things like document review.
I am responsible as the junior lawyer on a range of matters that I have worked on since I started the graduate program. This allows me to develop client relationships and familiarity with the subject matter. My tasks include emailing clients updates, responding to client queries, amending contracts based on client or partner feedback and attending client meetings. As I have progressed in the graduate program, my responsibilities have increased at a rate that challenges me and allows me to grow.
Graduate role - tasks range from having a first go at reviewing and drafting documents, preparing pitch proposals to potential clients and assisting the team with document management when closing a deal.
About the employer
Herbert Smith Freehills
4.5
1,000 - 50,000 employees
Law
A leading global law firm delivering high-profile work that matters to our clients. We have the ambition to do things differently.
Pros and cons of working at Herbert Smith Freehills
Pros
Learning from the best. Everyone is super smart and invested in my career development. I have felt incredibly supported from day 1.
HSF has great people, great work, and great experience for anyone who comes here, especially for a graduate like myself.
The firm is really flexible with its work-from-home policy and benefits for employees who are required to work late.
The firm's culture is top-notch across the board, everyone from senior lawyers and partners to support staff are so willing to help each other.
The training and development at HSF is unmatched. Hands-on in a challenging environment where you have every opportunity to learn and grow.
Cons
Same as every top-tier firm, if there is a big deal you can be working longer hours. But the sense of achievement provides a lot of satisfaction.
There isn't anything that I can think of - it would be better if the firm invested more in graduate bonding/social events.
Long hours are a common experience in the industry and largely unavoidable given the client-centric nature of the work.
The fast-paced nature of the work means you don't always get to spend as much time as you would like on tasks.
As with all big commercial firms, work hours and pipeline can be unpredictable but that is the nature of working with big clients and transactions.