Start your legal career with programmes designed to give you genuine experience, meaningful responsibility, and the support of some of New Zealand’s leading legal minds. Whether you join as an intern, summer clerk or graduate, you’ll be immersed in real work from day one, gaining hands‑on exposure to high‑profile matters and developing the skills you need to thrive in a fast‑evolving legal landscape.

Summer clerk programme

Real work, real opportunities and heaps of fun!

Our summer clerk programme gives law students from all over New Zealand the chance to spend their summer break from University experiencing life inside a top tier corporate law firm.

Our summer clerks rotate through two teams over the summer, gaining broad experience in practice areas you are passionate about. After your induction, you will be immersed into your team with a variety of challenging and exciting client work to develop your legal knowledge and problem-solving skills.

Summer clerks get involved in real work for their team’s clients, and the type of work you will do depends on what is going on with your team’s clients at the time.

An important part of our culture at MinterEllisonRuddWatts is to give back to our community and inspire the next generation of lawyers – so you’ll also have the chance to take part in our Community Investment Programme. This may include helping the kids at one of our Homework Club schools, helping the conservation efforts on Tiritiri Matangi or getting involved with one of our other CIP initiatives.

And because our people are what makes us a leading New Zealand law firm, we also provide some fun social and networking activities so you can get to know your colleagues and build great connections for years to come.

Generally, our law clerks are our previous summer clerks, so we highly encourage you to apply for our summer clerk programme and experience life in a top tier corporate law firm.

Important dates and information

Law students can apply for our summer clerk programme in March of their penultimate year of study.  We don’t have a fixed number of summer clerks that we take each year. Numbers are decided on the strength of the applications and by balancing the number of clerks with the work we have. This is to ensure that every summer clerk gets a good quantity of quality legal work providing you with real opportunities to learn. This also means that everyone has the potential to join us permanently when they graduate from University.

• Applications open Tuesday 3 March 2026 and close Tuesday 24 March 2026
• Interviews are held in-person in late April to mid-May (in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin)
• Offers will be made in mid-May
• The summer clerk programme starts in mid-November and finishes in mid-February
• Two rotations in different teams
• Opportunity to be offered a law clerk role for the following year

Intern programme

Get ahead of the pack: Gain practical experience while studying

Our intern programme gives Auckland-based law students the opportunity to gain practical, paid legal work experience in our Auckland office during the academic year (March – September).

Interns work in one of our core practice areas. You will be supported by a junior lawyer and mentored by a partner in the team and get lots of opportunities to be involved in interesting, real-world legal work. Our interns are involved in meeting clients, attending court hearings, observing ground-breaking commercial deals as they unfold, researching legal issues and drafting legal documents and advice for clients. At the end of the programme, you are invited back to join our summer clerk programme.

Key dates and information

Our intern programme is available to law students at Auckland University or AUT, who (at the time of applying) have completed at least two of their second-year law papers. Most interns work one full day, or two half days, each week but we are flexible and can fit in around your University timetable and commitments.

• Applications open in September
• Interviews are held in early October
• Offers are made in October
• The programme runs from March to September

You can find out more about life as an intern from Shane Antia and Isabella Denholm.

Law clerk programme

Kick start your career

We typically recruit for additional law clerks as part of our annual recruitment campaign commencing in March (if all our law clerk positions have not been filled by our previous summer clerks). Law clerks usually start with us in January (or July) each year. For January starters, your law clerk programme will start with a bespoke Profs course through the Institute of Professional Legal Studies (IPLS), which is run fulltime and onsite at IPLS. We will continue to pay you your full salary while you complete Profs. We support you through the admission process and pay for your admission costs and also provide you with additional leave so you can celebrate your admission – a significant milestone in your legal career – with your family and friends. We also provide you with additional leave to celebrate your graduation from University.

After completing Profs, you will start our graduate development programme which includes mentoring, division-based training, a buddy and supervisor, secondment opportunities and a range of other benefits. You can find out more about life as a law clerk from Aimee Harris and Nathan Fox.

Benefits