DLA Piper Australia
Sydney Seasonal Clerkship Programme (Nov 2025)
Sydney
Opportunity details
- Internship, Clerkship or Placement
- AUD 55,000 - 65,000 / Year
- 10-20 vacancies
- Apply by 6 Jul 2025
- Start date 16 Nov 2025 - 23 Nov 2025
DLA Piper is a global business law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA and the Asia Pacific. We help clients succeed through innovative and pragmatic legal solutions. Leading businesses across the world trust us with their most complex matters and rely on our seamless cross-border prowess and sector knowledge. Wherever you are, and whatever your challenge, we speak your language.
IT'S IN OUR DNA
Unlike many law firms, DLA Piper is organised to provide clients with a range of essential business advice, not just on large scale mergers and acquisitions and banking deals but also on people and employment, commercial dealings, litigation, insurance, real estate, IT, intellectual property, plans for restructuring and tax. It has a comprehensive, award winning client relationship management program and the brand is built upon local legal excellence and global capability.
Life moves fast at DLA Piper, and with good reason. We help the world's top companies with their business-critical issues. Many of the deals we work on are complex and challenging – transcending not just practice areas, but borders, languages and legal systems.
In everything we do we’re connected with our People, our Clients, and our Communities. We live by four values: Be Supportive, Be Bold, Be Collaborative and Be Exceptional.
As a firm, we never standstill. We think nimbly and seize opportunities. We're ambitious and are never afraid to innovate. So, if you possess these qualities too, there could be a bright future for you at DLA Piper.
YOUR OPPORTUNITIES
We provide cutting-edge learning and development programs, and an opportunity to work alongside some of the best legal minds around.
Due to increased demand, we are looking for applicants to take part in an 8-week clerkship during the following period:
- Summer Intake: November 2025 – December 2025 and January 2026 – February 2026
As a summer clerk, you can expect a varied experience both in and outside the office. You will work in a creative, dynamic environment with some of the best legal professionals in the world, gaining first-hand experience doing real legal work.
The clerkship is 8 weeks in duration and will commence with a two-day national induction program in the Sydney office. The induction program will give you the opportunity to hear from the firm's senior leaders, to participate in professional skills training, to attend networking events, and to participate in responsible business activities.
All 2025/26 summer clerks will automatically be assessed for a 2026 Graduate position.
Joining us as a clerk is your best pathway to a graduate position with DLA Piper.
Apply now and be a part of our future.
Hiring criteria
- No experience required
- Australian Citizen +more
- Law, Legal Studies & Justice
- Bachelor or higher
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.