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
We offer you a competitive salary, real work experience, great training, a buddy to support you, and the opportunity to be offered a summer clerkship. You can find more about life as an intern from Shane Antia and Isabella Denholm.
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 (see our teams at the bottom of this page). 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.
I chose MinterEllisonRuddWatts due to the firm’s expertise in commercial law, in addition to what I had heard about the firm’s culture. With the firm renowned for its work in areas such as dispute resolution, corporate law, and banking and finance law, MinterEllisonRuddWatts stood out for me.
– Tom Simmonds, Solicitor in our Litigation team
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 in early March
- 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
Summer clerks receive a competitive salary, real work experience, great training, and a partner and buddy to support you. You will also receive a generous clothing allowance when you start with us, travel costs covered (up to $500) if you need to relocate and three weeks’ paid leave at Christmas.
The culture at MinterEllisonRuddWatts is second to none and was a big reason why I chose to summer clerk at the firm. Not only is the firm passionate about achieving excellence for its clients, but the firm places high importance on supporting its own people and fostering a positive work environment. You feel a real sense of community here at MinterEllisonRuddWatts that I have been grateful to be a part of!
– Jessica Tonge, previous summer clerk
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. Check out the Why Us page to learn more about why we are named a top employer in the NZ Lawyer 5-star Employer of Choice 2023 list.
Our teams
Summer clerks rotate through two teams over the summer, while interns and law clerks work in one specific team. Before starting with us we’ll chat with you about your interests and team preferences.
There are five divisions (each with a number of sub-teams) across our two offices:
- Banking and Financial Services;
- Corporate, which includes Competition, IT, IP, Private Wealth, International Trade and Tax;
- Litigation, including Employment;
- Real Estate, including Environment; and
- Construction and Infrastructure, including Energy.
Across these divisions we also advise on all aspects of public law and regulation. Internationally recognised as Band 1 by independent researchers, Chambers Asia-Pacific, our Public Law team has an excellent track record for helping public and private sector organisations lawfully, effectively and efficiently achieve their regulatory, policy, commercial and broader strategic goals across all sectors of government.
What I enjoyed the most about my rotations in tax and construction litigation was how I was constantly challenged every day. I could walk into the office every day confident that I would walk away with plenty of learning. The continuous learning has made my summer clerkship a really rewarding experience.
– Kevin Qian, previous summer clerk
Click on the tabs below to learn more about each practice area and check out videos from recent summer clerks.
Click to hear from Vijay Chand, who spent a summer rotation in the banking and financial services division and is now a Solicitor in the Wellington Team.
Click here to learn more about our Banking and Financial Services team.
Corporate and commercial
Click to hear from Brayden Print, who summer clerked with us in Corporate, and is now a Senior Solicitor in the M&A team in Auckland.
Competition law
Intellectual property (IP) and information technology (IT)
Click here to find out more about IP
Click to hear from Sione Roberts, who interned in the IP team and is now a Solicitor in the Litigation team.
Click to find out more about the work we do in the technology space.
Tax
International Trade
Click here to find out more about our Litigation and dispute resolution team.
Click to read about life in the Litigation team from Tom Simmonds, Chantal Hoeft and Hasaan Malik.
Click here to find out more about our Employment team.
Click to read about life in the Employment team from Isabella Denholm.
Click here to learn more about our Property team
Click to hear from Josh Meikle, a previous summer clerk and now Solicitor in our Wellington Property team.
Click here to learn more about our Environment team
Click to hear from Aimee Harris, who started as a Law Clerk and is now a Solicitor in our Auckland Environment team.