Legal Specialist Program

Duration: 24 months
Location: Sydney

• Program overview

  Here's an ideal opportunity to apply your academic legal knowledge to a great range of projects, working with the Legal Team at Westpac.

  As a graduate in the Legal Team, you'll enjoy respect and responsibility from day one and flourish in a career that gives you a huge range of exciting opportunities.

• What we're looking for

  You need to be a Law graduate, and ideally we'd like you to have finished your practical legal training before joining the program at the beginning of 2008 (if not we can talk about options for getting it done). Less obviously, but just as importantly, you need the qualities that go with working with friendly, motivated people at Westpac.

  You'll be comfortable dealing with anyone from a casual employee, to external law firms, to members of the board. You'll be outgoing, confident and a great team player because you'll work in a closely knit, supportive team. You'll be an adaptable person as the range of work is wide and varied and you'll need to be approachable.

  You will be the sort of person who has:

  • An ability to identify relevant legal issues
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills including the ability to listen to what the client's issues are and to ensure legal implications are understood and taken into account
  • Integrity, empathy and proactivity in dealing with clients
  • An ability to work within and contribute to a team environment
  • Excellent drafting skills
  • A disciplined approach to negotiation, prioritisation, follow up and completion of matters
  • An ability to apply researched and known theory in a practical setting
  • An ability to handle competing priorities in a context of reaching commercial objectives
  • The skills to maintain numerous active current files in an organised manner

• Job description

  First class legal support is critical to enable Westpac's businesses to achieve their strategic goals. The profitable delivery of financial products and services frequently involves complex, time critical, one-off financial solutions for Westpac's businesses and its customers.

  Westpac Legal provides the legal advice and documentation necessary to ensure business and customer expectations are met and legal risks to the Westpac Group are minimised. This may involve specialised drafting, the identification and explanation of unusual legal risks and advice on the most appropriate legal structuring and contractual arrangements.

  As a graduate within Westpac's Legal Team you will work to familarise yourself and stay up to date with relevant laws, product and credit policies and compliance and legal unit requirements relevant to the practice group in which you are working. You will also need to gain an adequate knowledge of the underlying business units you are supporting.

  Under guidance from your supervising lawyer you will advise, document and assist in product development and negotiation of transactions in compliance with laws, policies and Westpac's requirements. You will establish active professional relationships with relevant clients and other lawyers within Westpac and actively follow through issues or questions asked, raised or otherwise encountered to ensure efficient resolution (even if passed to another to answer).

  In addition to this general role description, each practice group within the Legal Team will have objectives specific to their area of practice.

• Rotation

  A rotation is the time you spend in a particular practice group within the Legal Team. The Legal Graduate Program is two years long, comprising two rotations of one year each.

  Our practice groups focus on areas as diverse as Dispute Resolution, Employee Relations, Technology & Intellectual Property, Banking Products, Financial Markets, Treasury and Wealth Management.

  At the end of your second rotation you will move into a permanent role that will continue to develop the technical and leadership skills you gain during the program.

• Rewards/Benefits

  We offer a very competitive graduate salary. You'll enjoy generous staff benefits including financial product discounts and health and lifestyle benefits. And if you don't live in Sydney, we'll help you move.

• Career path

  Our Legal graduates start out as Assistant Counsel within our Legal Team and quickly progress into the role of Counsel within a specialised area on completion of their graduate program. We have a number of different specialist teams covering employment law, commercial and intellectual property, and banking and finance to name a few.

• Support and training

  During your graduate program we'll work with you to bring out your best and encourage you to grow and develop. Your Graduate Manager will provide you with support and direction during your program and will be responsible for working with you to set up your rotations. Your Graduate Manager will also facilitate a number of graduate specific events throughout the year and will help you find an appropriate role at the end of your program.

  You'll have the support of your Mentor who will give career management advice throughout the year and guide you on which rotation opportunities would be best for your development and career aspirations. As well as on-the-job development opportunities, we also provide training throughout the year. You will participate in a training curriculum specifically designed to help our graduates make the most of their graduate year by equipping them with the necessary communication and business skills to be successful. You will also attend seminars hosted by leading law firms.

  Your Buddy is also a great support. This person is an ex-graduate who can help you out with settling into the organisation and will provide you with support and advice throughout your program.

• Background

  Our expert Legal Team provides our business units with legal advice on banking products, services and industry issues. The team works as an independent unit and also partners with external legal firms when the need arises. There are currently about 100 people in the Westpac Legal Team.

If you would like an idea of what your day-to-day work could look like, please have a look at our graduate profiles.

* To be eligible to apply for this program, the candidate must be an Australian Citizen or Australian Resident.