Careers
Law Students and Graduates
Are you ready to discover and chart your legal career path? Perhaps our search for talented visionaries and your search for important and impactful work will lead to the same place. Our summer and trainee programs will give you access to complex and sophisticated work for significant clients across the globe, provide signature training and mentoring programs led by our professional development team, and allow you to collaborate in our diverse and inclusive culture.
We invite you to review the information presented below and express your interest by submitting an online application.
A clerkship is the ideal opportunity for you to discover what we have to offer. We currently have clerkship programs in our Melbourne and Sydney offices.
This internship is an exciting opportunity for an inside view of what it is like to work at the firm, and will provide insight into the functions of an international and growing law firm.
We welcome applications from students who are seeking to commence their training in April 2026.
We seek talented interns to join our rapidly expanding Paris office that has a national and international practice focused on corporate, merger and acquisition, private equity, real estate, labor and employment, environmental, and commercial work.
We would like to invite enthusiastic and motivated law students who are considering law as a career, to join our internship program in Hong Kong. Our internship program is structured, offers training, and a real insight on what life is like as a lawyer in an international law firm.
We welcome applications from law students and graduates who are interested in entrusting and developing a long-term legal career with us.
Our Singapore office, operating as K&L Gates Straits Law LLC, anchors the firm's growing presence in South East Asia. With a business-friendly environment, Singapore has grown into one of the world's top finance centers. We are accepting applications for Training Contracts, as well as for attachments and internships.
Our Taipei office welcomes talented law students to join the team.
Our Legal Work Placement is your opportunity for an inside view of what it is like to work at K&L Gates.
We welcome applications from both law and non-law students who are seeking to commence their training in August 2027.
Make the transition from student to lawyer. Our summer associate program is the first step to becoming a full-time associate.
Our graduate program is designed to give you the technical capability and commercial context to succeed.
Our Milan office is always looking for exceptional talent within our key practice groups, including corporate, real estate and town-planning, energy, investment funds, litigation and dispute resolution, tax, labor and employment, IP/IT, and public law.
We appreciate the training and experience gained while working as judicial clerks and actively seeks to hire former clerks in practice areas where this experience is valuable. Candidates may be eligible for a clerkship bonus.
While K&L Gates’ new associate class primarily consists of former summer associates, opportunities to hire third-year law students is determined on an office by office basis.
The Application
We interview for our Summer Associate Program on campus or virtually at more than 50 law schools and job fairs across the United States.
If interviewing with us through your school is not an option, or if your school allows for early interviews, we invite you to apply directly to our 2025 2L Summer Associates positions, which will be available on our job board beginning 1 March 2024.
Suited Assessment
K&L Gates has partnered with the predictive candidate screening platform Suited to expand our consideration of candidates beyond traditional hiring metrics. Instead of relying on surface-level information that can be found on a resume, Suited uses assessments to holistically and objectively surface your potential. Our goal is to make the recruiting process as fair and seamless as possible, so that we can find the candidates who will be fulfilled in their roles and complementary to our culture.
Completing the Suited assessment is a required part of our hiring process; however, should you believe that even with appropriate reasonable accommodations enabled you require an alternative selection procedure, please contact your local recruiting manager. If you have already complete the Suited assessment for another firm, you will not be required to complete it again and will use your emailed invitation to release your results to us.
Information on what is measured by the assessment, Suited’s data retention policies, and how to request a reasonable accommodation may be found on Suited's resource guide for law students website.
The Callback Interview
If you are selected for an interview, plan to spend several hours at the firm meeting with lawyers of varying experiences and practices, and talking with local recruiting staff. If you have any questions before your interview, please contact the Regional Recruiting Manager.
The Hiring Decision
Students are notified about the status of their candidacy as soon as possible following their callback interview.
We want to help you be at your best during your interview. Below are a few tips to help you prepare and feel confident:
Make a self-assessment
List all the factors that are important to you and rank them based on your needs and expectations. Ask yourself questions such as: What is your preferred firm size? What practice areas interest you? Do you prefer to work as a team, solo, or both? Would you rather be in an entrepreneurial, structured, or free-market environment?
Present the real you
In your interview, relax and respond to questions naturally and honestly. Sell your strengths. Recognize your weaknesses. And stay away from overly rehearsed responses. Honesty is always the best policy and if you really do not know the answer—just say so.
Understand expectations
It is no secret that practicing law is challenging. So it is important to comprehend the demands of the law firm where you’re interviewing. Ask what a typical day or week at the firm looks like. And understand the expectations of associates. After all, your chances for success and happiness are directly linked to whether your expectations and the expectations of the firm coincide.
Be aware of your surroundings
You can learn a lot about the culture of a firm, just by looking around. Note the design of the office space. See whether office doors are predominantly open or closed. Notice if the environment feels fast-paced and exciting or calmed and relaxed. You will be spending a lot of time at the office and you should feel comfortable in your new space.
Ask thoughtful questions
Do not waste time asking things you can find on a law firm website—ask the interviewer to go into more detail regarding what you have learned on your own. If there is a controversial topic, do not be afraid to ask about it in a positive and respectful manner. However, it is best to save more sensitive questions until you receive the offer.
