Life as a graduate
Delivering on its commitment to junior development
Having completed a seasonal clerkship with Baker McKenzie in February 2022, and having had an outstanding experience, I was delighted to accept a graduate offer with the Firm in August 2022. Reflecting on the reasons why I chose Baker McKenzie, the Firm has truly delivered on these during my graduate program – providing me with real and immediate exposure to high-quality, global legal work in a learning environment that has an unwavering focus on developing its junior lawyers; enabling me to experience its down-to-earth and supportive culture; and enabling me to form genuine friendships and connections.
In the thick of the action from day one
Graduates at Baker McKenzie in Melbourne undertake a 12-month program with three four-month rotations. Before commencing my legal career, my gut feeling was that I would end up in a group that did front-end, transactional work – perhaps with a projects focus. However, the Firm encourages its graduates to have a breadth of experience prior to settling in a team. Following this sound advice, I joined the Construction team for my first rotation, which has a highly integrated transactional and dispute resolution practice – an opportunity that is actually available across several practice groups at the Firm.
From day one, I was immediately in the thick of the action, working directly with partners and senior lawyers in a close-knit team – not only in Melbourne but across Australia and even our overseas offices. I had the opportunity to work on a variety of front and back-end matters, such as preparing construction contracts relating to a client's bid for a public infrastructure project, attending witness interviews and drafting witness statements in relation to a major infrastructure project dispute.
Having had exposure in the Construction team to renewables projects and business development (a skill the Firm strongly encourages us to develop early in our careers), I then decided to join the Energy team (where I have now settled). From the get-go, I was involved in assisting with due diligences for renewables, M&A and financing matters; ensuring that conditions precedent for a solar farm's project financing were satisfied in order to reach financial close; researching/drafting regulatory advice for energy retailers; and preparing presentations for delivery to clients and industry groups. No day was ever the same in the dynamic and fast-evolving legal, commercial and regulatory landscape that is the energy, climate change and sustainability sectors. It was really exciting to experience this as a graduate.
Rounding out my jam-packed 12 months, I joined the Banking & Finance team. Reflecting again, a key reason why I chose Baker McKenzie was the sense that, given the smaller size and non-hierarchical structures of the practice groups, I would have the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to matters from an early stage. Banking & Finance continued to deliver on this in spades. Each day, as a graduate in the Banking & Finance team, I increasingly felt my skills and abilities growing, particularly because I was increasingly given the trust and responsibility to progress matters and key documents using my own initiative. I was also able to interact with clients, while always being supported by highly approachable, hands-on, and supportive senior colleagues and partners who, every day, always had time to offer guidance and support. It was rewarding to see my skills and abilities flourish in this final rotation.
As a student, I could not even have imagined having the work opportunities that were presented to me, and it has been fulfilling to feel supported and valued every step of the way throughout a rapid year of change and transition.
All the learning and fun in between
A highlight of the graduate program was our trip to Sydney soon after starting the program to participate in the Firm's two-day intensive learning program for graduates, with one day focused on corporate/commercial law and the other on dispute resolution/litigation. While these sessions were a practical and insightful introduction to a career in law, the most fun was forming early and lasting friendships with other graduates across the Firm's offices, who (by the way) became a most valuable support system as you set out on the legal career journey together.
The two-day intensive program was a strong reinforcement of the comprehensive and valuable induction program we had at the start of our graduate program. The induction program was designed to arm graduates with the essential technical, legal, and soft skills required to hit the ground running and train us on using the unrivalled legal resources that Baker McKenzie, as a globally integrated firm, provides its lawyers.
Balancing full time work with our PLT studies certainly made for a whirlwind of a first year, but contributing to the whirlwind (in a good way!) there were also regular Firm social events (my favorite, of course, being Friday night drinks), team lunches/activities, EOFY/end of year parties, sports events, and opportunities to participate in many inclusion, diversity, equity, and Community Service events (with the standout for me personally being the Eat-Up Australia sandwich making sessions to donate sandwiches to underprivileged kids).
Unfortunately, I was also late submitting this article, perhaps due to wasting precious time engaging in a vigorous hallway discussion regarding who is going to take out the highly coveted footy tipping competition trophy (just between you and me, I'll need a miracle this year).