Location: In Australia, we have offices in Sydney and Perth. Worldwide we have 48 offices across 29 countries.
Areas of expertise: We focus on innovative and expert legal solutions across a broad range of areas: mergers and acquisitions; private equity; capital markets; regulatory and funds; anti-trust/competition; litigation and dispute resolution; cyber security; banking and finance; infrastructure and projects; energy and resources; communications, outsourcing and technology and tax.
Staff: In Australia we have 28 partners and 120 lawyers. Globally we have 800 partners and nearly 4,000 lawyers.
Contact: australianrecruitment@aoshearman.com
About the firm
In May 2024, Allen & Overy and Sheaman & Sterling merged to create A&O Shearman, a global law firm built to achieve unparalleled outcomes for the world’s leading businesses. Building on the legacy of both firms and with some of the greatest legal talent around the world, A&O Shearman is the first fully integrated global industry-leading law firm. Our fluency in English law, US law, and the laws of the world’s most dynamic markets, enables us to provide unmatched insight and seamless delivery to clients. We work on challenging and important deals and disputes that have the potential to shape the future.
At A&O Shearman, we recruit the best and ask for the best of you. We provide challenge, support and a place for you to belong. And together we excel.
Working at the firm
At A&O Shearman, you don’t have to blend in to belong and you don’t need to wear yourself down to excel. Join our summer clerkship program and we will support you to learn as much as possible about who we are, give you access to the people and leaders you’ll work alongside and develop the skills you need to excel with us.
Our summer clerkship program is a great way to experience firsthand our work and culture. During the program, you will gain real experience working alongside our lawyers on real deals and cases as well as specifically designed exercises that provide a valuable insight into the role of an A&O Shearman lawyer. Bespoke training will be provided by some of our leading lawyers in Australia and across our global network.
In addition to completing rotations in two of our practice areas in the Sydney office, our previous summer clerks have been able to spend time in one of our Asia Pacific or US offices during the program. This experience will give you a greater understanding of our global network and a taste of future opportunities at A&O Shearman.
Opportunities for students
Our Sydney 2024/25 Summer Clerkship will take place from 25 November 2024 to 31 January 2025.
2024/24 Summer Clerkship Opening and Closing Dates
Applications open on 10 June 2024 and close on 14 July 2024.
2024/25 Summer Clerkship Intake
Our clerkship intake is based on business needs. In 2022, we recruited 13 Summer Clerks including three from New Zealand.
After becoming a clerk, what are the prospects of obtaining a graduate role?
To date, we have always offered all Sydney Summer Clerks a graduate role.
What specific qualities do we look for in a potential clerk?
There is no typical A&O Shearman lawyer. We realise each person has their unique skills and qualities. Our shared culture and the values inspire the way we work and behave: instinctively thoughtful, collectively ambitious, insightfully inventive and refreshingly open.
In addition to excellent academic results, we seek Australian and New Zealand law students in their penultimate year who are team players, have a global mindset, are good communicators, have strength in planning and organisation, are adept at problem solving and have general commercial awareness with an overall ambition to build a career at A&O Shearman.
Meet Janna Tay
Lawyer, Sydney
“One advantage of doing your graduate years in A&O is the ability to do 2-4 rotations through different teams before settling, so you get a sense of what life will be like in those areas of law. At A&O, you’re also given quite a bit of responsibility early on and you’re encouraged to try new things..”
Where do you work now?
I am a technology (TMT) and corporate lawyer in the Sydney office of A&O Shearman.
What career steps have you taken to get to this point?
I winter and summer clerked at a large law firm in NZ and worked part-time in legal tech there during my final years at university, which sparked my interest in the intersection between law and technology.
What kind of work have you been involved with at Company?
I’ve worked on mergers and acquisitions, digital transformation projects, technology-related joint ventures and collaborations, licensing, data privacy, and regulatory matters and submissions. There are also regular opportunities to work on pro bono matters, and I’ve assisted with human rights-related research and submissions on Australian legislation.
What do you enjoy about working at Company?
The wide variety of work allows you to try many different areas, giving you the chance to figure out where you might want to place yourself in the future and drill down into a specialisation. One advantage of doing your graduate years in A&O Shearman is the ability to do 2-4 rotations through different teams before settling, so you get a sense of what life will be like in those areas of law. At A&O Shearman, you’re also given quite a bit of responsibility early on and you’re encouraged to try new things – I’m fortunate to have partners who support my wide variety of interests and who have let me contribute to and help to lead the adoption of new technologies, such as AI, in the firm.
What is unique about working at Company?
There are few truly international law firms in New Zealand or Australia that can operate at a high level both domestically and globally, and A&O Shearman is one of them. I have been fortunate to work on some of the biggest domestic deals in Australia while also often working directly with partners in different offices and assisting them on local matters across APAC, the Middle East, and Europe. Additionally, once you settle in a team, you attend training in the London office with other A&O Shearman lawyers from all around the world at your level. Since the Sydney office is smaller than the major domestic Australian firms, juniors are able to step up and take responsibility for matters much earlier. Many people who join A&O Shearman from other firms often comment on how collegial A&O Shearman is – partners are incentivised to share work across offices, which leads to greater collaboration and connection.
What is your advice to other students who would like to work with Company?
Recruitment is stressful. Use the opportunity to develop your own thinking about what you want to do with your legal career and to ask real questions in the time you have with seniors who might not otherwise have given their time. Build a strong narrative around who you are – be clear on how A&O Shearman fits into your narrative and how you might fit into the strategy and aims of A&O Shearman. In developing greater clarity on your path for your own sake and in building genuine rapport with people, you’ll be someone who people want to work with.