Training & Personal Development at Baker McKenzie

The on-the-job training has been great. Obviously, this depends on the partner that you are working under, but I have had the privilege to work very closely with some great partners.

Fantastic! Our formal training is amazing - we are sent to Sydney for a two-day intensive and have many sessions over the first 3 months of work that teach us all about how to be a lawyer. We then have monthly Cornerstone sessions for general junior lawyer training and practice group specific training too! It is very very good.

The training as a junior is excellent. There are a number of programs designed to assist with core legal knowledge (such as our Cornerstone program) and there is a two day intensive which juniors complete in Sydney. On the job training is also prevalent across teams.

The firm has a structured program where lawyers can progress in accordance with clear benchmarks. There are frequent presentations and sessions run covering a variety of soft skills and legal knowledge. Senior lawyers are generally very forthcoming with providing informal feedback and on the job training.

There is a mixture of formal and informal training at the Firm. There is a dedicated 2-day session with an introduction to transactional and litigation law. The graduate program also has many check-in points for supervisors to give you feedback and develop the rotation to suit your interests and growth.

During the clerkship process, there are formal training sessions which go into legal research, drafting and managing your time. We also do another set of training sessions during the graduate program. Having smaller teams lend itself to hands on experience, so the on-the-job training is quite comprehensive.

Really great. I particularly enjoyed the transactional/litigation workshop in Sydney which allowed us to network with those in other offices.

I like that training is ongoing as we have training workshops throughout our entire graduate journey, not just during induction. This it allows us to build on skills we pick up throughout the early months of our rotations, and means wedon't get totally overwhelmed in the induction week.

A significant amount of my training has come from working on real matters with more senior lawyers. People at Bakers take the time to explain things to you and to teach you - I have learnt a huge amount of technical skills and drafting skills in this way. We also have a really robust training and development program - there are so many opportunities to access PDs, previous seminars and knowledge resources. There is always a wealth of information to digest and legal skills sessions to attend. There are also several soft skills sessions (ie. leadership, communication) that are available to us.

Both formal and informal training sessions from the start - about hard and soft skills, different practice areas, technology, committees, and ways of working.

Really good training for juniors in the first 2 years of practice. Formal training program to make you a well-rounded lawyer and build on those skills, and further formal practice group specific training. Mentoring is taken seriously, and informal training and development with more senior colleagues pays dividends.

The firm conducts trainings frequently (both formal and informal) and I found them useful and invaluable.

Very comfortable. From a formal perspective, we have scheduled training regularly, both for juniors specifically, and for (and by) each team generally.

As a graduate we had a trip to the Sydney office for a 2 day learning and development program which highlighted key transaction and litigation skills and areas of interest. We also had monthly graduate PD sessions and each teams runs their own professional development sessions fortnightly focusing on a particular topic or case of interest.

PD sessions - these are very useful, and it is good experience to prepare them. Junior Lawyers Cornerstone sessions - these are useful.

Formal programs include the Cornerstone program for graduates, as well as practice group training for the broader team. Informal training usually includes some mentorship from partners and senior associates.

Extensive training and development programs, however, scope to scale these down and instead focus on the most practical day to day training.

The training in the graduate year (and ongoing) is very good. You get two full days of training (transactional/litigation processes) with your colleagues in the Sydney and Brisbane offices.

Informal training is excellent - the small team size means that you are constantly exposed to senior colleagues and learn from them. Formal training is good That said, we have very regular training sessions, as well as multi-day training programs interstate and overseas (with our practice groups and with lawyers of a similar experience level).

Formal training (E.g. internal professional development sessions) are good for keeping up to date with legal developments and practical tips on specific areas of law; other formal training (E.g.. drafting workshops with external providers) have been less helpful. Would appreciate more skills-based workshops E.g.. deconstructing an advice - this happens sporadically in practice groups and would be useful to have as part of general cohort training.