Overall highlights of clerkship/ graduate programs – why you love working at CC/ what has surprised you about the culture of CC

The clerkship program serves as a bit of a "trailer" to life at CC. There is ample opportunity to socialise and network with your fellow clerks, who may then become your grad cohort, so when you start the grad program, it isn't too unfamiliar (both the work and your colleagues). The remuneration (including a wellness allowance, technology agility allowance, and private health insurance) is generous, and the secondment opportunities, as well as opportunities to get involved in business development with clients (for example,e by attending client meetings and assisting with client presentations), is also excellent.   

International & domestic secondment opportunities / plus practice group global retreats

Within my first year of working at CC, I have had the opportunity to move to Perth for 6 months on domestic secondment and travel to Bangkok for our APAC team offsite I will soon be going to London for 6-months. The opportunities to travel for work with Clifford Chance are far superior to the opportunities domestic firms provide. A lot of the matters I have worked on have involved legal issues that stem across jurisdictions, which have involved collaboration with colleagues in other offices, both within APAC and beyond. The Bangkok offsite was an excellent opportunity to network with colleagues from other offices and learn about the firms' strategies. Secondments are also an excellent opportunity to meet colleagues from other offices and expand your networks globally.  

4 x 6-month grad rotations – within the three practice groups, there are sub-teams and opportunities to work across multiple partners and areas of law   

The 4x 6-month rotation structure of the grad program provides really good exposure and insight into each practice group to ensure you make an informed decision about what group to settle in after the graduate program. As you rotate through each team and do your secondment, you get more exposure to the operations and business model of the firm, the clients, and the cross-collaboration across practice groups.

Variety of work and greater responsibility working within small teams – more client interaction and opportunity to add real value to every matter

Clifford Chance is generally smaller in numbers compared to the larger domestic firms. However, this can often work to an advantage, allowing more opportunities to get involved in interesting, meaningful work. It's a nice balance between responsibility and support, whereby you are given opportunities to step up and take on interesting work while equally feeling supported and provided with training and mentorship.

Learning & Development offering during the grad program and beyond

There is an online Academy portal where we do all our mandatory inductions and training, which also offers additional training and workshops across a wide range of topics, including emotional intelligence, AI developments, business finance and presenting with impact, just to name a few. In addition to the online training, there are also several regular in-person trainings, including at the beginning of each graduate rotation, to introduce you to the practice group. For example, GFM has a two-day "boot camp" concluded with a team dinner. There are also Affinity Network trainings, for example, LGBTQ+ Awareness Training and the Bangkok offsite had a lot of sessions and trainings, too.  

Diversity of people across teams – greater collaboration

Since starting at Clifford Chance, and particularly through the work of the Affinity Network groups, I have learnt so much about other races and cultures. Clifford Chance celebrates a range of cultural holidays beyond the traditional "Western" holidays, which creates an environment of inclusion and unity. Each team is unique and diverse, and everyone's ideas are welcomed.

Support network – buddy/ supervisor and supervising partner across each rotation

As a clerk, you are assigned a buddy (a graduate) for the entirety of the clerkship, and as a graduate, you are assigned a buddy (an associate) for your first seat (or "rotation") and your secondment. In addition to the formal buddy structure, there are also several informal mentor opportunities and supports available in the firm. Joining an Affinity Group (Arcus, REACH, Enable or Accelerate) is also a good opportunity to build networks across the firm and build a support network, particularly on shared values/interests.   

Life outside of work – involvement in any affiliation groups, e.g. Enable/ Arcus/ Accelerate.

Being involved in the REACH (Race Equality and Celebrating Heritage) Network has provided an excellent opportunity to step up and take the initiative to organise events and to work on matters beyond the usual scope of "corporate work". For example, some of the work REACH has done includes ordering Clothing the Gaps shirts for National Reconciliation Week for people to wear to show their support for reconciliation, organising NAIDOC week events, Lunar New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival, Diwali and several other significant cultural events and holidays. The firm has also recently implemented a Public Holiday Swap Policy to allow employees to celebrate holidays of cultural significance to them.