Clerkship null

Your role

Davies Collison Cave Law (DCCL) offers a focused Intellectual Property (IP) Law seasonal clerkship program. The program enables you to gain hands-on experience in a top-tier IP law firm, where you will work alongside world-leading IP lawyers. The work you will undertake will be contentious and non-contentious IP work, including major IP litigation (often international), covering multiple IP statutory regimes, the Australian Consumer Law and associated contractual, administrative, procedural and evidentiary law. At DCCL you have the opportunity to begin your IP law career from the day you start your clerkship!

As a seasonal clerk, you will be exposed to client work including:

• Researching an area of law, analysing points and summarising your findings
• Drafting correspondence on behalf of others
• Shadowing our lawyers in client and external meetings which may include court proceedings.

About you

The key things they are looking for in a Seasonal Clerk:

• Excellent academic record.
• Completing the penultimate or final year of a law degree.
• A personal drive to excel in a career in Intellectual Property law.
• Ability to establish trusting relationships with clients and peers.
• Time management skills.
• Analytical, with attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Benefits

The benefits of working with Davies Collison Cave extend beyond professional experience. Their reputation is independently verified by local and international surveys and they have consistently been voted Australia’s premier patent and trade mark firm by industry peers.

Benefits of a Seasonal Clerkship at DCCL:

• Work directly with world-leading IP lawyers on a variety of casework.
• Gain mentorship from practice principals, not just the junior lawyers.
• The buddy system provided a junior lawyer.
• Attendance at social events, where you meet and network with principals and professional staff across the firm.
• Gain one-on-one IP education.

Training & development

DCCL believes the most valuable clerkships are those that provide students with hands-on experience. They won’t spend half of your clerkship putting you through induction training — instead, you will be learning on the go, from day one. You will gain direct supervision from both the lead principals of the practice and senior practitioners. You will experience the diversity of the industries and technologies they work with locally and globally. With DCCL, you’ll have the opportunity to work with a friendly and supportive team, participate in team meetings and enjoy their social events.

Career progression

Due to the success of the DCCL seasonal clerkship program over the years, they will recruit the 2026 graduates from their seasonal clerkship candidate pool. The Graduate Program will be the place to start your specialist career in intellectual property litigation, where you will get to work full-time with talented professionals and partners in all aspects of IP law.

How to apply

Please submit a Cover Letter, CV and Academic Transcripts. No application will be considered without transcripts.

Sources

The following sources were used in researching this page:

• dcc.com/careers/
• dcc.com/careers/ip-law-clerkship/