Seeking work experience as a pre-penultimate year student

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As a pre-penultimate year student, you are generally not eligible for most internship, vacationer and clerkship programs.  However, as explained in What makes a competitive applicant for clerkship, vacationer, internship or graduate positions?, this fact does not mean that you need to wait (or should be waiting) until your penultimate year to obtain work experience (whether it is legal or non-legal experience).

This post focuses on examples of "legal experience" and tangential experience which pre-penultimate year law students could be considering.  However:

  • remember that "legal experience" is not the only form of work experience valued by law firms and other legal employers.  For example, customer service experience is valuable to employers as such experience tends to demonstrate the proven ability to work with clients and customers.  The importance of "other" experience is perhaps evidenced by the fact that there will be always some seasonal clerks who, prior to their clerkship, had never set foot in a law firm; and
  • you should not limit yourself to the below list and be open to any opportunities that may come up, whether legal or non-legal.  Pre-penultimate "legal" roles are often hard to obtain and limited in number. For most students, your first "legal" role may not be a paralegal role at a law firm.  As a student with no or little prior experience, you should be open-minded about your first role.    


Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash

Here is a non-exhaustive list of common legal roles that you could be applying for (whether you are interested in commercial law, family law, criminal law or other areas of law):
  • Paralegal: Paralegal roles may be available at law firms (of all sizes and practice areas), in-house legal teams and government legal teams.  
  • Research assistant to barrister: Senior Counsel and Counsel may require research assistants (and sometimes, research assistants are shared between multiple barristers in the same chambers).
    • Community Legal Centre volunteer: Front desk volunteer positions are often highly sought at popular community legal centres such as Redfern Legal Centre and Marrickville Legal Centre in NSW.
    • Not-for-profit organisation volunteer: For example, the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) considers law students (who meet certain requirements) for volunteering positions.
    • Pre-penultimate programs:  While these law firm programs are strictly not "work experience", they are valuable extracurricular experiences which clearly demonstrate an interest in commercial law.  E.g. Allens Dive In Program, King & Wood Mallesons Insight Program, etc.
    • Internship and vacationer programs in other fields:  Subject to eligibility requirements, some students may apply for and do internships (prior to their penultimate year) in fields such as professional services (e.g. audit, tax or consulting), finance or journalism.     
    As a law student, I often found it useful, as a reference point, to browse LinkedIn to see the types of legal or non-legal experiences that previous seasonal clerks and law graduates had prior to their clerkship/graduate program.  
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