Start your legal career with programmes designed to give you genuine work experience, meaningful responsibility, and the support of some of New Zealand's leading legal minds. Whether you join as an intern, summer clerk or graduate, you'll be immersed in real work from day one, gaining hands-on exposure to high-profile matters and developing the skills you need to thrive in a fast-moving legal landscape.
Our intern programme gives Auckland-based law students the opportunity to gain practical, paid legal work experience in our Auckland office during the academic year (March – September).
Interns work in one of our core practice areas. You will be supported by a junior lawyer and mentored by a partner in the team and have lots of opportunities to be involved in interesting, real-world legal work. Our interns are involved in meeting clients, attending court hearings, observing ground-breaking commercial deals as they unfold, researching legal issues and drafting legal document and advice for clients. At the end of the programme, you are invited back to join our summer clerk programme. You can find out more about life as an intern from Sione Roberts.
Our intern programme is available to law students at Auckland University and AUT, who (at the time of applying) have completed at least two of their second-year law papers. Most interns work one full day, or two half days, each week but we are flexible and can fit in around your university timetable and commitments.
 | Tai Cleave,previous intern and summer clerk (2026)"Throughout my summer clerkship, I was impressed by the firm's genuine commitment to community initiatives. Opportunities like the Homework Help Club, and volunteering on Tiritiri Matangi, were standout experiences that highlighted the firm's dedication to giving back." |
Our summer clerk programme gives law students from all over New Zealand the chance to spend their summer break from university experiencing life inside a top tier corporate law firm.
Our summer clerks rotate through two teams over the summer, gaining broad experience in practice areas you are passionate about. After your induction, you will be immersed into your team with a variety of challenging and exciting client work to develop your legal knowledge and problem-solving skills.
Summer clerks get involved in real work for their team's clients, and the type of work you will do depends on what is going on with your team's clients at the time.
An important part of our culture at MinterEllisonRuddWatts is to give back to our community and inspire the next generation of lawyers – so you'll also have the chance to take part in our Community Investment Programme.
Social activities and networking opportunities throughout the summer help you build lasting relationships across our firm.
Many of our future law clerks come through the summer clerk programme, making it one of the most common pathways into a graduate role at our firm.
 | Lily Woods,previous intern and summer clerk (2026)"The culture at the firm is unmatched. Everyone in the firm genuinely wants you to succeed and is willing to invest time in you. It is a supportive environment that fosters genuine learning and curiosity." |
Law students can apply for our summer clerk programme in March of their penultimate year of study. We don't have a fixed number of summer clerks that we take each year. Numbers are decided on the strength of the applications and by balancing the number of clerks with the work we have. This is to ensure that every summer clerk gets a good quantity of quality legal work providing you with real opportunities to learn. This also means that everyone has the potential to join us permanently when they graduate from university.
We typically recruit additional law clerks as part of our annual recruitment campaign commencing in March (if all our law clerk positions have not been filled by our previous summer clerks). Law clerks usually start with us in January (or July) each year. For January starters, your law clerk programme will start with a bespoke Profs course through the Institute of Professional Legal Studies (IPLS), which is run fulltime and onsite at IPLS. We will continue to pay you your full salary while you complete Profs. We support you through the admission process and pay for your admission costs and also provide you with additional paid leave so you can celebrate your admission – a significant milestone in your legal career – with your family and friends. We also provide you with additional paid leave to celebrate your graduation from university.
After completing Profs, you will start our graduate development programme which includes mentoring, division-based training, a buddy and supervisor, secondment opportunities and a range of other benefits. You can find out more about life as a law clerk from Aimee Harris and Nathan Fox.
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