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.
The A&O difference
A&O Shearman is a new global industry-leading law firm, with 48 offices in 29 countries worldwide. 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.
We offer exceptional opportunities for our people; opportunities to work for the world’s leading businesses; to transform the status quo, and to deliver your best work, helping you and your career to thrive, while delivering unparalleled outcomes for our clients.
Whether you're helping clients solve complex challenges, transforming the ways we manage our business, or ensuring the smooth-running of our operations, this is an environment where you can belong and excel. We provide first-rate training and development, we are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and we provide support and ways of working that help you optimise your wellbeing.
What truly defines a career with us? We recruit the best and ask for the best of you. And together, we will redefine success.
What we can offer you
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 U.S. 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.
As your career progresses with A&O Shearman, you will be given a range of choices to develop your experiences, such as taking up the opportunity to spend time working in another office, whether that’s a rotation as a junior lawyer, a longer term secondment or a permanent transfer.
Top tier Australian and international work
At A&O Shearman, we advise on our clients most strategically important business decisions. With a track record of advising on complex, Australian and cross-border matters for market leading organisations, we are able to offer our clients the best of both worlds: the expertise and resources of a global elite law practice coupled with seasoned practitioners with Australian and international experience.
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.
What we are looking for
There is no typical A&O Shearman lawyer. We realise each person has their unique skills and qualities.
In addition to excellent academic results, we seek 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.
To find out more, visit the A&O Shearman website.