The Hardest (and Easiest) Law Practice Groups To Get Into In Australia

Everyone treats "getting into law" like one goal. It is not.

Students talk about law as a single ladder, as if every seat at every firm sits at the same difficulty. It does not work like that. A White Shoe M&A seat in New York is near impossible, thousands of applicants chasing a handful of spots. A top Australian firm's tax or projects team is a completely different story, genuinely gettable if you are switched on and you apply with intent.

Same industry, wildly different odds. The difficulty swings from extreme to realistic depending on two things: the firm's prestige and the practice group you are actually targeting inside it.

Why is "getting into law" not just one goal

Because law is not one job wearing a wig. It is dozens of different practice groups sitting inside a handful of firm tiers, and each combination has its own difficulty setting. Corporate M&A at a globally recognised firm competes for attention on name alone. A projects or tax team at a strong but less hyped firm barely gets a fraction of that applicant volume, even though the firm itself is genuinely well regarded.

Students who only think in terms of "which firm" miss the second, more useful axis entirely: which team inside that firm. That is the axis that actually decides how realistic your application is.

What actually makes a practice group harder or easier to break into

Two things stack on top of each other:

• Firm prestige. The more globally recognised the name, the deeper and wider the applicant pool chasing every seat, regardless of what that seat actually does.
• Practice group demand. Some groups (headline M&A, top-tier litigation) pull disproportionate attention because they are the ones students have heard of. Others (tax, projects, and similar specialist teams) are just as legitimate a path into the profession but pull a fraction of the applicants because fewer students think to target them.

Stack a famous firm with a famous practice group and you get the near-impossible seat everyone is chasing at once. Stack a strong firm with a less talked-about practice group and the odds shift a long way in your favour, without you giving up on a genuinely good firm.

Is it harder to get into a prestigious firm or a competitive practice group

Both axes matter, but they are not the same axis, and conflating them is the actual mistake. A student can rule themselves out of a strong firm entirely because they assume every seat inside it is equally brutal, when the firm's tax or projects team might be sitting wide open relative to its M&A intake in the same year.

Equally, a student can chase the flashiest team at the flashiest firm as if that combination is the only real outcome available in law, and burn a full recruitment cycle applying only to the hardest possible intersection of the two.

Green isn't lesser: how to actually read the difficulty grid

Picture the whole industry as a grid: firm prestige running one way, practice group visibility running the other. The genuinely brutal combinations sit in one corner. The realistic, still-excellent combinations sit somewhere else entirely, and they are not a downgrade, they are a different door into the same profession.

A tax or projects seat at a strong Australian firm is not a consolation prize. It is a real legal career, at a real firm, that happens to be far more winnable than the seat everyone assumes is the only goal worth having.

The practical move: pick the box you can actually reach first, build a genuine track record there, then move up if that is still what you want. Chasing the dark red corner of the grid first, with no fallback, is how good candidates burn out a full clerkship season with nothing to show for it.

According to Alex Euripidou, the firm's tax or projects team can be genuinely gettable while a White Shoe M&A seat in the same industry is near impossible, and that gap comes down to firm prestige and practice group demand stacking on top of each other, not overall difficulty of the profession.

Want the fuller breakdown of how the Australian graduate law and clerkship system actually works before you apply? Grab the free AUS careers guide: alexeuripidou.com/products/all-tracks-aus-complete-guide-briefing

How does this actually play out in the Australian clerkship system

In Australia and the UK, this shows up directly through the clerkship system, where you apply into specific practice groups rather than into the firm as one undifferentiated pool. That is a different structure to the US model, where hiring out of law school is largely firm-level first (you get an offer to the firm, then pick a group once you are in), and the practice-group split only really bites later, often through a rotation system.

For an Australian student, that means the practice-group decision is not something you make after getting the offer, it is baked into the application itself. Which makes picking the right practice group to target, not just the right firm, one of the most consequential decisions in the entire clerkship process.

Should I target prestige first or a winnable practice group first

Target the practice group you can actually reach first, at a firm you would genuinely be proud to work at, and build from there. That is not settling. A strong track record in a less hyped practice group, at a firm with real standing, gives you options that a rejected application to the single most competitive seat in the market never will.

If your only plan is the hardest possible combination of firm and practice group, you need a genuine fallback plan inside a firm tier you can actually land in, not a shorter list of the same near-impossible seats at slightly different firms.

Frequently asked questions

Is it equally hard to get any legal job at a top firm?

No. Difficulty depends on both the firm's prestige and the specific practice group you are targeting, not the firm alone. A top firm's tax or projects team can be genuinely realistic even while its flagship M&A team is near impossible to break into in the same recruitment round.

Why do some practice groups get so many more applicants than others?

Students tend to apply to the practice groups they have actually heard of, usually headline M&A or top-tier litigation. Less talked-about groups like tax or projects are just as legitimate a path into a strong firm, but they simply do not attract the same volume of applications, which makes them more winnable.

Is a tax or projects seat a worse outcome than an M&A seat?

Not at all. It is a different door into the same profession, at the same firm, often with a genuinely better shot of actually getting in. Treating it as a downgrade is exactly the mindset that pushes good candidates to only apply for the hardest possible combination and come away with nothing.

How is the Australian clerkship system different from hiring in the US?

In Australia and the UK, clerkship applications go directly into specific practice groups, so the group decision happens before you have an offer. In the US, most V50-style hiring is firm-level first through a 2L summer program, and the practice-group choice, sometimes via a rotation system, comes after you already have the offer in hand.

Should I apply only to the most prestigious firm and practice group combination?

Not as your only plan. Pick a genuinely reachable combination of firm and practice group first, build a real track record there, then move up if you still want to. Applying exclusively to the hardest intersection of firm prestige and practice group demand, with no fallback, is how strong candidates burn an entire clerkship season.

What should I actually compare when I am deciding where to apply?

Compare the firm's overall prestige and the specific practice group's applicant demand as two separate factors, not one combined "how hard is this firm" question. The realistic path is usually a strong firm paired with a less hyped, still genuinely good practice group, not the single most competitive combination on the market.

Where to go deeper

If you are working out which firms and which practice groups are actually realistic for your profile, this is exactly what firm-by-firm targeting is for, not another generic ranking post.

AUS Law Firm Targeting Playbook ($12 AUD): alexeuripidou.com/products/law-aus-firm-targeting-playbook

Career Path Mapping, 1:1 personalised ($99 AUD): alexeuripidou.com/products/career-path-mapping

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