We believe that community’s benefit through greater access to justice and opportunity. We’re uniquely placed to respond to a range of needs that exist in the communities and regions that we serve. Just like our Partners and lawyers, many of our graduates participate in pro bono legal work and describe it as one of the highlights of their rotations. 

Nationally, we provide over 35,000 hours of pro bono legal work a year, an average of 46.4 hours per lawyer

All lawyers are encouraged to participate in the firm’s pro bono practice. This might be internationally or closer to home, it really is up to you. We focus on five key areas: access to justice, international development, social impact investment, not-for-profit advisory work and human rights (particularly anti-trafficking and anti-slavery).

Globally we focus on five key areas: access to justice, international development, social impact investment, not-for-profit advisory work and human rights (particularly anti-trafficking and anti-slavery).

Our practice groups provide many of our long-standing clients with a range of advice including partnership agreements, structuring, property, employment issues and governance. These include: CanTeen, CareerTrackers Indigenous Internship Program, Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, Foodbank Victoria, McIntyre Centre, Médecins Sans Frontières, Mission Australia, National Breast Cancer Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, Save The Children Australia, Starlight Children’s Foundation, St Vincent de Paul Queensland, The Big Issue, Yalari and Youngcare.

Click here for information on our Pro Bono and Responsible Business.

Since working together is a good way to get to know each other, we often fill graduate positions through our vacation clerkship program. We offer a range of summer and winter clerkships in each of our Australian offices.

We want to provide you with the skills and experiences to succeed in your career - wherever it may take you. Our Graduate Program is designed to develop the knowledge, skills and mind-sets required to succeed. By rotating through three distinct practice areas for six months each you will be given the breadth of experience you need to become a trusted business advisor.

You’ll get the opportunity to submit practice area preferences before every rotation, including before your first rotation, enabling you to tailor your graduate program to your specific interests. You can also discuss your preferences with our dedicated Graduate Recruitment team. If you are interested in broadening your skills further, you can also apply to complete an international rotation or a rotation through our Digital Law Group or our Legal Operations team. 

We know that life in a commercial law firm can seem daunting, and we’re here to provide you with all the support you need. Once you join, you’ll benefit from a two-week induction, ongoing practice group training throughout each rotation, a solicitor assigned as your dedicated “buddy”, regular feedback, plus extensive on-the-job support from solicitors, senior associates and partners.

We support graduates on their pathway to becoming solicitors by providing Practical Legal Training (PLT) and support through the admission process.

Once admitted, our Graduates will begin the second stage of their formal learning program – Advance. This program focused on the client, financial and people skills needed to take you to the next step of your career.

Our 2021 Melbourne graduates during their induction:

We select many of our graduates through our vacation clerkships. During this immersive experience, you’ll receive hands-on practical experience, actively contributing, as you work on some of the diverse challenges facing the team you’re collaborating with.

You’ll gain a deeper understanding of life at the firm and what your future could look like if you join us. Some key features include the opportunity to:

• Sit within a specific team, delivering real work for key clients
• Before you join, submit a preference for a team to tailor your experience
• Navigate the first step of your career with partner and graduate mentoring support
• Attend workshops and presentations covering all our practice areas
• Contribute to our pro bono practice
• Work with cutting-edge technology through our innovation projects
• Meet and network with people across the firm

By following us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, you’ll be able see behind the scenes into what life at Herbert Smith Freehills is all about.

Pre-penultimate Workshops

Herbert Smith Freehills is opening its doors and inviting pre-penultimate students in to learn about careers in commercial law.

In our one day workshops, you will learn about Herbert Smith Freehills, meet our lawyers and develop practical skills to help you in a career in commercial law.

If you’re a pre-penultimate student who is eager to get exposure to the legal profession ahead of clerkships, apply for our Pre-Penultimate workshop today. Events are scheduled over May & June. Spaces are limited.

Applications are welcome from university students who are in their pre-penultimate years of their university law degree (eg First- to third-year undergraduate law students or first-year JD students.)

We asked our Sydney Vacation Clerks to record a day in the life video and this was the result…

“At Herbert Smith Freehills, we don’t expect our people to be or think the same – indeed, diversity and inclusion drive our success and the innovative solutions we deliver with our clients. That’s why fostering an inclusive culture where our people can be themselves, contribute their perspectives and perform roles which are meaningful and aligned to our shared values is a core business priority.” JUSTIN D’AGOSTINO, CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Our vision is to be the leading global law firm for diversity and inclusion.

From bold and ambitious targets to drive gender diversity across our leadership and launching market-leading parental policies in Asia; to improving ethnic minority representation across our offices and developing a truly global approach to mental health and wellbeing and leadership on LGBT+ advocacy.

Our vision is ambitious and global. We recognise the power of diversity and inclusion to drive innovation, collaboration and business outcomes. By enabling our people to be their unique selves every day - we are Leading for Inclusion.

In the below video, May Tai, Managing Partner, Asia answers the question: “Where are you from?" – you can find the full series here.

Creating a sense of community and belonging is an important role for our diversity networks, which exist across the firm, including for gender, LGBT+, ethnicity and cultural diversity, family and carer responsibility, disability, mental health and veterans and armed forces & social mobility. Our networks offer mentoring and networking opportunities, advocate for changes in policy, collaborate with our clients and encourage allies to take a stand for others. They lie at the very heart of Leading for Inclusion.

Read more about our inclusivity.

As part of United Way WA’s Homeless Strategy, our Summer 1 clerks and members of our Perth office volunteered their time to prepare and cook a variety of meals. The meals were frozen and handed out as part of food hampers to those who are experiencing food insecurity. It was a great experience to make a valuable contribution to United Way, as well as to get to know our clerks a little better outside of the office.

More broadly, we released our fourth annual Responsible Business Report in 2020. Focusing on steps taken over the past 12 months, this communication on progress demonstrates the firm’s commitment to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Global Compact.

The latest report highlights how Herbert Smith Freehills has responded to the challenges facing organisations across the globe. Building on the firm’s values, it outlines steps taken to engage with clients, colleagues and the communities in which we operate.

The communication on progress recognises the firm’s responsibility to contribute to a sustainable future. It reports that, over the past 12 months, several steps have been taken to drive internal and external action on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

Committing to net-zero emissions by 2030

We are committing to reducing our overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and then balancing that lower figure with emissions removed from the earth’s atmosphere to reach a net sum of zero. We are planning to do so in a number of ways, including: using clean energy; working with those suppliers who are also committed to reducing emissions; and supporting initiatives that remove any carbon dioxide that the firm produces from the atmosphere.

Despite many years of valuable work and progress, the tragic killing of George Floyd in May 2020 made us realise that we were not where we wanted to be as a firm, nor where we should be, in our ethnic representation or our progress in dismantling systemic racism. 

After consulting across the firm, we established 10 action areas to improve representation, support and experience for its Black, First Nations, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues.

Our aim is to become an anti-racist organisation, and are committed to confronting the deep-seated inequities from which no society or business is exempt.

Herbert Smith Freehills' Regional Executives are responsible for ensuring these new commitments are acted upon across the firm's 25 offices. Each Action is backed by a plan and interpreted locally and regionally to reflect local challenges, cultures and legal nuances.

In Australia, our clerkship program has significantly increased the number of applications, interviews and hires from candidates of culturally diverse backgrounds. Diverse candidates now make up the majority of participants in our clerk programs in Melbourne (54%) and Sydney (55%). We use data to greater effect across our recruitment around the world, helping to remain focused on making an impact. 

Our global IRIS (LGBT+ and Ally) Network aims to promote and advocate for LGBT+ diversity and inclusion with the firm, to enhance our culture and client relationships. 

We do so through raising awareness, collaboration with other networks and our clients, promoting visible and diverse role models, contributing to thought leadership, advocacy and best practice, supporting the communities in which we operate and ensuring that, across the network, our people feel safe and supported. 

Our network has supported: 

• Re-launching our Trans and Non-Binary Guidelines, with a focus on non-binary inclusion and enhancing the support available to individuals, including by offering 1:1 coaching;
• The decriminalisation of homosexuality and LGBT+ rights across the world, through our pro bono work;
• A global mobility project looking into the experiences of LGBT+ people who travel/relocate with business and the support needed;
• Work to ensure that our medical providers are fully LGBT+ inclusive;
• A legal battle to win the right to spousal visa for same-sex couples in Hong Kong; and
• Open Doors in Australia to deliver services to LGBT+ young people with a range of needs including, homelessness, mental health, alcohol and drug counselling and suicide prevention 

Herbert Smith Freehills was also recently the Principal Legal Partner of Sydney WorldPride 2023. 

"As a firm, championing diversity and inclusion is not just what we do, it's who we are... [O]n a personal front, I have always been deeply committed to ensuring an inclusive culture is embedded across our firm and the profession. When I became a partner in 2007, I founded our first LGBT+ network (IRIS), one of the first such networks of any international law firm. Now, here I am, some 15 years later, announcing that we are the Principal Legal Partner of Sydney WorldPride. It's just remarkable how far we have come."
- Justin D'Agostino, Global CEO, Herbert Smith Freehills 

Improving gender balance in the firm is a key priority. Since we first set gender targets in 2014, we have increased the proportion of women in the global partnership from 18% to 29%, and the number of women partners has increased by 84%. In addition, women now hold 28% of our key partner leadership roles, compared to 18% in 2014. Our current gender target is that women will comprise 35% of partners (and partner leadership roles) by May 2023. 

Find out more about our strategy and download our latest update on Gender Targets.

We are committed to advancing a culture of partnership and Reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In 2011, we launched our first of four Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs), making Herbert Smith Freehills the only law firm to date to receive, now twice, ELEVATE leadership status, the highest level of leadership endorsement by Reconciliation Australia. 

Our second ELEVATE RAP, launched in September 2021, included a commitment to support the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander views and voices expressed with clarity, consistency and urgency in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. We will continue to be guided by First Nations peoples and organisations. In addition to investing approximately AUD$2 million annually directly into Indigenous organisations and communities, we are committed to showing leadership and advocacy at a systemic level. 

CareerTrackers 

In 2011, Herbert Smith Freehills was the first law firm to join CareerTrackers, a non-profit organisation that creates private sector internship opportunities for Indigenous university students. Since that time, we have hosted 49 CareerTrackers interns across all of our Australian offices, including Kishaya Delaney. To date, 6 interns have joined in full time positions across our Australian offices. Our 10-year commitment to CareerTrackers includes being CareerTrackers' primary provider of pro bono legal services, continuing to support up to 10 interns per year, providing organisational capacity building within CareerTrackers and providing further opportunities for alumni to develop a legal career at Herbert Smith Freehills.