Herbert Smith Freehills
Herbert Smith Freehills’ Digital Law Group Virtual Experience
Australia, Online/remote
What is this?
Welcome to Herbert Smith Freehills’ Digital Law Group Virtual Experience
Our Digital Law Group comprises over 50 lawyers across the world, who investigate and develop new legal technologies and solve the big legal questions associated with global digital transformation.
Why should you do this?
This Virtual Experience Program is self-paced and should take only 3.5 to 6 hours to complete.
This Virtual Experience Program is free for all students.
When you complete the Virtual Experience Program, you’ll earn a digital badge and certificate you can share on Linkedin and include on your resume.
Throughout the program, you’ll learn and develop deep insights into what it is actually like to work as a lawyer at Herbert Smith Freehills. Apply your law knowledge to a real-world problem & gain practical experience and knowledge to draw upon in interviews.
What skills will I gain?
Sourcing and summarising recent articles on emerging ethical, governance and regulatory changes and challenges in the digital space.
Preparing a memo on the ethical obligation of lawyers in the context of new and emerging technology.
Conducting research on Smart Legal Contracts.
Building a Smart Legal Contract
Providing advice on a breach of a Smart Legal Contract
What you will do?
Module 1: Exploring the ethical implications of emerging technology (1 hour - 2 hours)
Prepare the monthly update to our clients with links to relevant articles that explore the ethical implications of emerging technology
Module 2: Lawyers’ role as trusted advisors (30 minutes - 1 hour)
Prepare a memo to inform the content of a Partner's presentation on ‘the changing nature of lawyers in the current climate of increased reliance on technology and digital transformation’.
Module 3: What is a Smart Legal Contract? (30 minutes - 1 hour)
Conduct research on Smart Legal Contracts and use your new knowledge to answer a series of questions on the topic.
Module 4: Building the Smart Legal Contract (30 minutes - 1 hour)
Identify the underlying process, inputs, logic and output of a delay clause, then create a process map or pseudocode for the clause.
Module 5: Advising on a breach of a Smart Legal Contract (30 minutes - 1 hour)
Draft email advice outlining the key arguments for each party in a dispute relating to a Smart Legal Contract and note any outstanding questions you have.
Ready to get started?
Click Register to begin.
Hiring criteria
- No experience required
- Australian Citizen +more
- Law, Legal Studies & Justice +more
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.