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Law internships in Australia are very difficult to find from the UK/ Europe or the USA. Intern Options made the decision to stop offering Law internships in because of this.

This page will give you tips and hints on finding your own law internship in Australia.

If you are a current law student or law graduate and you are looking at undertaking an internship in Austraila, Sydney and Melbourne are the natural choices. But there are other cities to think about. Adelaide currently have lawyers on their long term skills shortage list. Other cities to think about are Brisbane (Queensland) and Perth (Western Australia)

Law is a hard field to place into in Australia as there are quite a few law graduates in Australia who do not have jobs at the moment and who are filling the entry level positions.

Having said this there is still a demand for enthusiastic UK trained law students. If you are looking to undertake a law internship or add a law placement on to your travel plans so that CV doesn’t show a gap after graduation, you will need to go some ground work before you leave.

Some example law placements you can look at are:

• Internship placement within a Law firm – research and assistance
• Internship placement within the legal department an organisation
• Internship placement within the legal department of a NGO

The Australian Working Holiday Visa will allow you to undertake an internship for between 6 and 26 weeks and stay in Australia for up to 12 months. To be eligible for this visa you will need to hold a passport from a country that has a Working Holiday arrangement with Australia. For more information on this visa, see our Internship Visas page.

You don t actually need a job or an internship to travel to Australia on a working holiday visa. So you can travel to Australia and then look for a job.

In reality you should not expect to be paid for your Law internship in Australia. We know this is not what you want to hear after many years as a student and possibly a student loan. However if you choose to combine an internship with some Australian travel, then a 6 to 12 week unpaid internship will hopefully not break the bank.

The reason for this is there are many Australian Law graduates who fill the entry level jobs and are available to interview face to face.

The fact that your law internship will probably be unpaid does usually allow you to find a much better internship position than if you were hired in a paid role. There is usually greater scope for learning and taking on better work.