- Nov
- 19
Baker McKenzie
Bakers' Dozen #12
Tue 19 Nov 2024, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
How to be a stand-out clerk
If your dream is to be an outstanding global lawyer, your journey to a world-class commercial legal career begins here! Start with Australia's first global law firm and set yourself on the path to excellence. Kick start your career with our world-class clerkship. Build your legal and technical expertise through our graduate program. Receive outstanding work and mentoring, so you can become an expert in your field, as an associate.
Graduates want the best foundation for their careers. Baker McKenzie prides itself on building that foundation with you and investing in your future.
We have been developing global lawyers with in-depth local expertise in Australia for 60 years – each started out as a law student, just like you. And with Baker McKenzie's strong global brand and connectivity, we take a global approach to your career development.
Our People Experience, a key component of our global strategy, is about delivering the best employee experience to enable one high-performing, global team to serve our clients. We offer our people access to market-leading, cross-border, local, and industry-focused matters for leading multinational and domestic clients. We understand our clients' businesses, industries and strategic objectives and work with our clients to overcome the challenges of competing in the global economy. We have an unrivalled ability to provide training and secondment opportunities across our global network. We are committed to engaging with our communities. We view inclusion, diversity and equity as foundational to our culture and strategic vision. We have an inclusive culture of learning, coaching and opportunity, where you undertake work in small teams across multiple geographies with clients and colleagues.
We are a place where everybody can succeed, whatever your background and wherever you are located.
At Baker McKenzie, we understand that the transition from university to legal practice can be challenging. We provide our summer/seasonal clerks with a comprehensive induction program, with legal, technical and soft-skills training sessions, to help make this transition as smooth as possible. Our training program is designed to help you get the most out of your clerkship and set you up for success.
We consult with our clerks before they commence to understand the areas of practice in which they are interested in gaining experience. We structure the clerkship program according to these preferences, where possible.
Throughout the clerkship, our partners, associates and Talent Management team run professional development and other sessions. These sessions will give you the chance to (amongst other things):
Most importantly, as a summer/seasonal clerk, we want you to experience what life is like as a graduate and junior lawyer at Baker McKenzie. So, right from the start, you will get involved in real work and be given real responsibility. You will be exposed to local and cross-border work for market-leading Australian and international clients through client meetings, shadowing, research, and other everyday tasks within your assigned practice group (such as drafting correspondence, preparing court/transaction documents, drafting advices/agreements, legal research, document review, attending court/mediations, attending meetings with barristers/witnesses, attending settlements, and preparing client alerts). You will also have the opportunity to participate in pro bono files and community service initiatives.
Our clerks are guided by a supervising partner, and enjoy the extra support of an experienced associate “buddy”. With the Firm's strong focus on supporting its people to learn, grow and achieve better results, you can expect to be well-led, well-coached and well-mentored.
The majority of our graduate positions are offered to former summer/seasonal clerks. We also offer our former clerks the opportunity to undertake paralegal roles with the Firm.
To learn more about life as a clerk at Baker McKenzie, please visit our Graduate Stories page:
Baker McKenzie is committed to providing a diverse and inclusive culture for all its employees, with equality of opportunity for all to progress and have a meaningful career with our Firm. Our mission is to foster an environment where individuals of every ethnic or cultural background (including First Nations peoples), gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, physical or intellectual ability, neurodivergent experience, and marital and parental status may succeed professionally and fully contribute to the goals of the Firm.
We believe that diversity within the Firm makes us stronger and delivers better solutions for our clients, and that an inclusive and equitable workplace enables our talented workforce to achieve their full potential. We celebrate differences and all of our people are expected to create and maintain an open and supportive culture of respect for everyone. Diversity and inclusion is not about a series of events – it is about how we all do things on a day-to-day basis.
Importantly, our clients expect a diverse and inclusive workforce, and we want to reflect the organisations and communities within which we all live and work. Enriching diversity and inclusion within the Firm is one of the key objectives of our Global Strategy, with which the Australian offices are fully aligned.
Our local ID&E committees are critical in creating a sense of community among the diverse groups and local offices within the Firm. These committees are led by employees and open to anyone who supports the group’s initiatives as a self-identified member or an ally. Each committee sets its own agenda and goals specific to the issues the community feels are most important to them.
In Australia, the ID&E committee has identified six strategic focus areas, which form the current basis of the overall Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Strategy, and underpin our broader Firm strategy, as well as initiatives, policies and programs. These are:
Our bAgile program also encourages a range of flexible work opportunities for all.
Baker McKenzie is committed to providing a diverse, inclusive and equitable culture for all its employees, with equal opportunity for all to progress and have a meaningful career with our Firm. As part of our inclusive culture, we welcome applications from people of all genders (including if you identify as transgender or gender diverse), sexual orientations, abilities, cultural backgrounds, as well as First Nations peoples and people with caring responsibilities, neurodivergent lived experiences and disabilities. We want all applicants to be given the best possible opportunity to succeed in our recruitment processes, so invite you to let us know of any reasonable adjustments you require to equitably participate in our recruitment processes or in performing the requirements of a role at Baker McKenzie.
We appreciate that everyone's needs are different. Please contact us so that we can work with you to best support you in our recruitment processes. We are happy to share accommodations we've made in the past and are keen to work with you personally, to set you up for success.
Our pro bono and community service initiatives are an integral part of Baker McKenzie's mission. These programs aim to inspire our people to make a difference and collaborate with clients who share the same commitment to social justice. Baker McKenzie lawyers and graduates are actively encouraged to undertake pro bono work. We believe the provision of pro bono legal services is a fundamental professional responsibility.
(a) Pro Bono legal services
Baker McKenzie is a signatory to the National Pro Bono Aspirational Target of at least 35 hours of pro bono legal work per lawyer per year. Last year, we significantly exceeded this target with our lawyers undertaking more than 47 hours of pro bono work per lawyer! Our lawyers regularly undertake a wide range of pro bono legal work for disadvantaged clients in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane as well as charities and not-for-profit organisations. Some of our work includes assisting victims of domestic violence seek financial and other support; assisting asylum seekers with their protection visa applications process, including representing clients in court; helping the elderly, seriously ill clients, and young people exiting the child protection system with their legal affairs; working with various organisations to prepare submissions and advocacy papers to support law and policy reform; assisting start-up organisations with structuring, charity registration and tax endorsements, presenting legal workshops; and much more. Our pro bono work extends globally too.
(b) Community Service
Everyone at Baker McKenzie has the opportunity to participate in a variety of community service initiatives. Our three pillars of community engagement are: charity partnerships, volunteering programs and workplace giving. The Firm's charity partners are Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS), ID. Know Yourself and Project Etico. We partner with these charities on awareness and fundraising initiatives, and provide in-kind support. Volunteering programs include the Gawura school reading program for First Nations students, Eat Up school lunch preparation for disadvantaged students, and The Alfresco Community Kitchen meal service for people in need. Our online workplace giving program allows our people to direct their support to causes they feel connected to. Throughout the year there are also a number of giving initiatives and one-off volunteering opportunities to get involved in.
To be eligible for a 2024/2025 clerkship position with Baker McKenzie, you must be a citizen or permanent resident of Australia or have the right to work in a full-time role in Australia from November 2024 - February 2025 (for the Sydney clerkship) or from November 2024 - December 2024, during February 2025, or from June 2025 - July 2025 (for the Melbourne clerkships). You must also be enrolled in a law degree or equivalent which will qualify you for admission as a legal practitioner in Australia. At Baker McKenzie, our summer/seasonal clerkship programs are primarily aimed at students in the penultimate year of their law degree. However, final-year applicants are also considered in Melbourne.
In Sydney, summer clerkships commence end-November and conclude early to mid-February. Each clerk will undertake two rotations.
All applications should be addressed to Holly McKnight, Talent Management Advisor, and should include a cover letter, as well as details of your work experience, extra-curricular activities, interests, and academic results. We do not require you to upload your CV, as the information from your CV is used to respond to the areas above. We also ask you to complete 2 - 3 questions, particularly as our Firm does not use psychometric or other testing, group or individual assessments, or one-way video interviews as part of our overall assessment process.
Candidates will attend two interviews with partners/senior lawyers. In our interviews, we want to get to know all about you – your experiences, your interests, your achievements, your strengths and your abilities. We also want to know why you want to work with Baker McKenzie. To that end, our interviews are a mix of 'getting to know you' questions and 'behavioural' questions, so that our interviewers can get to know you and you can make the best possible impression.
Candidates are also allocated a ‘buddy’, to support them throughout the recruitment process.
Baker McKenzie also invites candidates to an information and networking evening, which is attended by partners and associates - so that you can meet as many people from our Firm as possible.
For more information on our Sydney summer clerkship recruitment process or program, please contact Holly McKnight, Talent Management Advisor, at Holly.McKnight@bakermckenzie.com.
To learn more about life as a clerk in our Sydney office, please visit our Graduate Stories page and read our articles by Michelle Chen, Andrew Vesperman and Austin Nguyen.
In Melbourne, we run three seasonal clerkships, each with a duration of four weeks. The first runs from late November to December, the second runs throughout February and the final clerkship runs from late June to July.
All applications should be addressed to Natalie Mascarenhas, Senior Consultant – Graduate Resourcing, and should include a cover letter, as well as details of your work experience, extra-curricular activities, interests, and academic results. We do not require you to upload your CV, as the information from your CV is used to respond to the areas above. We also ask you to complete 2 - 3 questions, particularly as our Firm does not use psychometric or other testing, group or individual assessments, or one-way video interviews as part of our overall assessment process.
Candidates will attend one interview with a partner and senior lawyer. In our interviews, we want to get to know all about you – your experiences, your interests, your achievements, your strengths and your abilities. We also want to know why you want to work with Baker McKenzie. To that end, our interviews are a mix of 'getting to know you' questions and 'behavioural' questions, so that our interviewers can get to know you and you can make the best possible impression.
Candidates are also allocated a ‘buddy’, to support them throughout the recruitment process.
Baker McKenzie also invites candidates to an information and networking evening, which is attended by partners and associates - so that you can meet as many people from our Firm as possible.
For more information on our Melbourne seasonal clerkship recruitment process or program, please contact Natalie Mascarenhas, Senior Consultant – Graduate Resourcing, at Natalie.Mascarenhas@bakermckenzie.com.
To learn more about life as a clerk in our Melbourne office, please visit our Graduate Stories page and read our articles by Anita Nair and Sandy McLachlan.
Baker McKenzie looks for people who genuinely want to work with us and who understand Baker McKenzie's unique offering and position in the market.
We look for well-rounded, motivated individuals who have a performance mindset and strive to be the best in whatever they do; who are intellectually curious and have sound academics; who display business acumen and are practical in their approach; and who have a global mindset and are passionately committed to service excellence. We look for people who enjoy a challenge and seek new opportunities; who constantly look for ways to achieve better results while learning and growing; and who take proactive ownership and responsibility for their careers. We also look for people who act with integrity, honesty and candour in their dealings, decisions and actions; who express themselves confidently while staying open to new ideas; who seek a friendly, inclusive and diverse culture; and who take seriously our role in making a difference to our local and global communities.
Baker McKenzie is committed to providing a diverse, inclusive and equitable culture for all its employees, with equal opportunity for all to progress and have a meaningful career with our Firm. As part of our inclusive culture, we welcome applications from people of all genders (including if you identify as transgender or gender diverse), sexual orientations, abilities, cultural backgrounds, as well as First Nations peoples and people with caring responsibilities, neurodivergent lived experiences and disabilities. We want all applicants to be given the best possible opportunity to succeed in our recruitment processes, so invite you to let us know of any reasonable adjustments you require to equitably participate in our recruitment processes or in performing the requirements of a role at Baker McKenzie.
We appreciate that everyone's needs are different. Please contact us so that we can work with you to best support you in our recruitment processes. We are happy to share accommodations we've made in the past and are keen to work with you personally, to set you up for success.
When you join Baker McKenzie as a graduate, we know you want to be working with clients on meaningful work right from the start, so we support you to hone your skills and develop your experience as quickly as possible. We also pair each graduate with a supervising partner and associate "buddy" in each rotation to maximise your on-the-job and formal learning, and provide you with support at all levels.
To foster the development of our graduates, our dedicated Leadership & Learning team facilitates sessions in five key areas - legal learning, managing your career, the business of law, business development & client service, and people & self-leadership. We offer targeted learning opportunities - including seminars on core legal topics (through our Cornerstone Legal Learning Program) and practical skills development workshops in areas such as drafting, legal research, commerciality, communicating effectively, building resilience, personal brand, innovation, financial literacy, and a number of further development sessions and panels to set you up for success in your graduate program - and beyond. We also support you with your Practical Legal Training, covering the costs and providing ample study leave. All of these ensure you get the best possible foundation for your career.
In addition, we have regular roundtables and mid and end of rotation meetings to ensure you receive mentoring, coaching and feedback to enable you to develop as a graduate and lawyer.
Additionally, we bring graduates across our Australian offices together for various training programs to foster networks across the Firm. We have also sent our graduates on client secondments - virtually and on-site.
To learn more about life as a graduate at Baker McKenzie, please visit our Graduate Stories page:
As you progress to being an associate, you will attend regional and global training and events/conferences relating to your practice to help develop your networks and legal skills. Further, you will attend regional transition programs at each career stage which provide development in the key skills our lawyers need – like people leadership, business development and project management – and which will enable you to foster relationships with international peers at the same career stage. We also provide our lawyers with opportunities to attend USA summer school courses and to obtain scholarships for full-time legal study overseas, and we support our lawyers to undertake further study locally - both financially and with study leave.
In addition, the Firm offers opportunities for lawyers at varying stages of their career to work directly for clients or with our other offices globally.
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