Arnold Bloch Leibler

How many partners and lawyers does your firm have?

38 Partners and approximately 120 Lawyers (including Law Graduates)

How many clerks are you intending to take on this summer?

45 clerks across three intakes

How many graduate lawyers did you take on this year?

23 across Melbourne and Sydney

How does your firm embody the notions of social and corporate responsibility?

Giving back to the community has always been one of our core values. At ABL, we proudly have a stand-alone pro bono practice group, led by partner, Peter Seidel. All lawyers at the firm are given the opportunity to get involved with pro bono work. The firm engages with many not-forprofit and charitable organisations that are active in communal, social, health, research, religious and environmental sectors. At ABL, we feel that we punch above our weight, and pro bono work is no exception. Pro bono work is an inherent part of the firm’s DNA and we do it because it is the right thing to do. The firm is deeply committed to indigenous constitutional recognition and reconciliation.

How does your firm strive to protect its junior lawyers’ work-life balance?

At ABL, we don’t expect people to remain in the office at the end of the day for the sake of being seen. We want our people to enjoy their life outside work – after all it’s our diversity of thought and experience that binds us, produces our collegiate culture and ensures our success. We support a variety of health & wellbeing events and initiatives, which include sponsoring fun runs and sports teams, providing fresh fruit daily, our fully subsidized gym membership, flexible work practices among many more.

What opportunities does your firm uniquely offer that may be of interest to prospective clerks?

During your clerkship, we arrange a number of extra-curricular activities such as dinners with our current grads and lunches with different groups across the firm (including a team lunch, firm-wide legal staff lunch and a special partner lunch). A recent addition to our clerkship program includes a day out with one of our clients. We find that this unique experience connects the dots for clerks to see and meet the people that lie at the heart of the firm’s identity. It also provides the opportunity to hear from our clients about why they have chosen ABL and what they’re looking for when they come to us for legal advice.

Does your firm offer any opportunities to work overseas?

ABL may be located in Australia but we have substantial global reach. We are renowned for advising entrepreneurial businesses all over the world and possessing influence within legal, business and political circles. While we don’t offer the ability to work from an overseas office, you will have the opportunity to do global work, from a local office.

What makes your firm’s culture unique?

ABL is well known for being the go-to firm when it matters. We pride ourselves on providing strategic guidance and solving complex problems related to our clients’ commercial interests, legal position and reputation. This means that our legal staff are exposed to interesting and varied work where they can fully utilise their skills and potential. We do not try to be everything to everyone − rather, we strive for excellence in our chosen areas of expertise. We encourage our employees to bring their whole selves to work each day, recognising that diversity of thought, background and life experience all contribute to our distinctive culture and the solutions we deliver for each of our clients.

A reputation for excellence & innovation

Arnold Bloch Leibler is the commercial law firm clients turn to for advice and support on their most complex legal matters, high stakes transactions, litigation and commercial decisions. With a reputation built on a long history of success, our lawyers are often at the centre of law reform and regularly advise on landmark matters.

Our firm advises entrepreneurial family-owned businesses, ASX listed companies, private clients and international corporations. We enjoy long-standing relationships with a select group of other professional advisors − including accountants, hedge funds, insolvency practitioners, private bankers and equity firms and overseas-based specialist law firms.

We pride ourselves on our ability to deliver innovative strategic guidance and solutions to complex problems related to our clients’ commercial interests, legal position and reputation.

What distinguishes ABL from other firms?

At Arnold Bloch Leibler we relish our exposure to a wide range of interesting and challenging matters that enable our lawyers to draw on their expertise and intellectual potential.

We encourage them to bring their whole selves to work each day, recognising that diversity of thought, background and life experience all contribute to our distinctive culture and the solutions we deliver for each of our clients.

Our internal structure is also a little different to our competitors. Our lawyers are trained to be ‘generalist specialists’ - able to straddle a range of different legal matters, as opposed to only being super specialised in a narrow field.

Kelly Seo | Lawyer | 2016 Graduate Banking & Finance and Commercial

“ABL’s graduate model allowed me to fast track my development well beyond what I expected. I surprised myself with how much I learnt in my first year. I am continually encouraged to think outside the square and contribute my ideas.”

Working in a broad based practice group this way, you’ll work across the full range of matters that the group deals with.

For example, you might choose to be a finance lawyer and work across corporate finance, property & development finance, restructuring and insolvency. In addition to core finance work, you’ll also be exposed to broader commercial transactions like shareholders and joint venture agreements, equity transactions, fund management and financial services - instead of specialising in just one of these areas.

This allows our lawyers to maintain a client-centric focus which is at the core of what we do. What’s the downside? Hard work and the ability to think differently. You have to cover more ground and be attuned to a larger range of issues. The feedback from our lawyers is that, while it’s more challenging, the satisfaction that comes from achieving excellent outcomes for our clients is unique. In fact, they say it’s pretty incredible.

For clerkship and graduate opportunities in our Sydney office, please visit our careers page on our website, www.abl.com.au. Expressions of interests are available year round as we hire on an ad hoc basis.

For further information about our clerkship and graduate program, please visit www.abl.grad.careers.