Practice groups, sectors and choosing your rotation adventure

Choosing a practice group for your clerkship or graduate rotations can feel overwhelming. How will your chosen path compare with uni study? Where can you get more information to weigh up the options? What if the reality doesn't match up with your expectations (read: cutting deals like an episode of Suits)? In this episode, Mel and Tahlia are joined by Senior Associate Tina Tran and Lawyer Tim Alice, who share their experience of choosing rotations and how those choices play out in practice. Tina and Tim also explain the difference between practice groups and sectors and how they impact day-to-day work.

Some of the questions we discussed

What is the difference between practice groups and sectors?
How does the sector group you're interested in feed through to your practice?
How do different practice groups and sectors interact with each other on a matter?
How did you choose your practice group rotation and what advice do you wish you had received?

This episode is part of our 2023 series.

Listen to the episode

As a child Melissa was told she would talk to a brick wall if it looked at her in the right way. As fate would have it, that brick wall would be Allens lawyers. Melissa clerked in 2019/20 and is now in Corporate M&A while also completing her Masters in Global Competition & Consumer Law. She describes law as a 'perfect fit' as it allows her to talk for a living and bankroll both her dogs' knitted sweater wardrobe and gourmet snack habit.

Tahlia is described by the Legal Admissions Board as a 'qualified lawyer' and by her junior school report cards as a 'disruptive class clown who distracts others'. They're not mutually exclusive. A former clerk in 2019/20, she is now rotating through the Intellectual Property team and quietly listens to Hans Zimmer scores at her desk in order to encourage productivity.

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