This post contains a list of law firms in Australia that I will continue to update. Hopefully it serves as a helpful list of firms to work through when you are applying for clerkships or graduate roles.

🏛️ Top Tier Firms (Big 6)

Top-tier Australian law firms are known for their prestigious reputations, global presence, and offering highly competitive clerkship and graduate programs that attract top legal talent.

Firm Name	Offices	Clerkships	Graduate Jobs	International Offices
King & Wood Mallesons	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
Allens	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes Minor Asian presence, but in a formal alliance with Linklaters.
Herbert Smith Freehills	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
Clayton Utz	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Darwin	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No
Ashurst	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
MinterEllison	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes Minor Asian, London and New Zealand presence.

Note: top tiers generally only hire those who complete its clerkship as graduates and rarely hire graduates ‘open market’ (i.e. directly from job listings unsighted).

🏛️ Upper Mid-Tier Firms

These firms are highly regarded and often compete with top-tier firms in specific practice areas.​

Firm Name	Offices	Clerkships	Graduate Jobs	International Offices
Corrs Chambers Westgarth	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No One Port Moresby office.
Gilbert + Tobin	Sydney, Melbourne, Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No

🌐 International Firms with Australian Presence

These global firms have offices in Australia and offer clerkship and graduate programs, often with opportunities for international work.​

Firm Name	Offices	Clerkships	Graduate Jobs	International Offices
A&O Shearman	Sydney, Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
Baker McKenzie	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
Bird & Bird	Sydney	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
Clifford Chance	Sydney, Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
Clyde & Co	Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
Dentons	Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne	No	Yes – Link	Yes
DLA Piper	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
HFW	Melbourne, Perth, Sydney	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
Jones Day	Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
K&L Gates	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
Norton Rose Fulbright	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
Pinsent Masons	Melbourne, Sydney, Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
Squire Patton Boggs	Perth, Sydney	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes
White & Case	Sydney, Melbourne	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes

🇦🇺 National Mid-Tier Firms

These firms have a strong national presence and offer clerkship and graduate programs across various offices.​

Firm Name	Offices	Clerkships	Graduate Jobs	International Offices
Gadens	Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No
Hall & Wilcox	Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Newcastle, Adelaide, Darwin	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No
Hopgood Ganim	Brisbane, Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No
HWL Ebsworth	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Norwest	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No
Jackson McDonald	Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No
Johnson Winter Slattery	Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No
Lavan	Perth	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No
Mills Oakley	Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No
Williams + Hughes	Perth, Geraldton	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	No
Wotton Kearney	Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra	Yes – Link	Yes – Link	Yes Minor Asian and New Zealand presence.

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Disclaimer

I have ranked the firms according to the generally accepted tiers of Australian law but not ranked the firms inside these categories. I acknowledge that ranking firms is a pretty redundant process. Each firm generally has strengths in particular areas (e.g. Gilbert + Tobin in corporate work). In saying that, these tiers generally reflect the scale and quality of work coming out of the respective firms in each category.

If you want further specific information on a certain law firm’s capabilities in an area of law, take a look at one of the following commonly referred to industry rankings:

• Chambers’ Asia-Pacific Guide
• Doyle’s Guide

Other ways to get an idea of the hierarchy of the Australian legal landscape are:

• staying up-to-date with Australian deals – an easy way to do this is reading business news publications such as the AFR or monitoring prominent law firm’s article publications found on their websites (the firm’s like to brag).
• staying up-to-date with prominent litigations – this can be done by trawling online court systems (hard mode), or more accessible, reading Australian legal publications such as Lawyers Weekly.
• talking to others in the profession – lawyers love the status game. Just ask them to start talking about their recent deals or matters and you’ll be begging you didn’t. But equally, you’ll find out a fair bit about the size of their matters, the types of matters they often work on and the complexity of their work.
• talk to law students – just as much as lawyers love gossiping, law students probably do even more. Law schools are a central focus point of law firm gossip. Get a vibe for each firm by talking to other law students. Not only will they be able to talk on personal experience (especially students from older years who have done clerkships), but other students will likely have connection to industry to speak with some authority (or maybe not, take it all with a grain of salt and DYOR).

What did I miss?

If I missed something or you have ideas for further information that could be helpful, leave a comment below!