Build Your Career in INTELLECT-S! Information for Law Students

Senior law undergraduate and graduate internships are one of INTELLECT-S's most successful programs within the firm's social initiative to support legal education.

Internship — in the form of contractual apprenticeship — last for six months; the interns are paid scholarships.

Interns are recruited on a competitive basis. Successful candidates must have:

• aggregate current or final academic score not lower than 4.5 (9 on the 10-point grading scale of 90% on the 100% percent scale);
• English proficiency;
• sensible research papers fit for a law review; and
• independently drafted legal documents (if the candidates have a practical advisory background).

Qualifying candidates must also show good test results and convince the firm's interviewers of their eligibility. 

INTELLECT-S's interns have a rare (in the Russian context) opportunity to learn, hands on, the workings of a law firm, inside and outside, try their hand in various areas and learn some practical skills and corporate culture (things not yet taught in Russian law schools), and make personal acquaintances in the profession.

Each intern is assigned to a member of the firm who gives him or her the usual paralegal or junior associate jobs, such as legal research, drafting documents and advice, attending court hearings, interacting with government authorities, attending client meetings, preparing client case status updates, etc.

INTELLECT-S's intern litigation clinic is absolutely new in Russian legal practice. Supervised and advised by an experienced litigator, interns, acting as a group, try small claim cases with the clients' consent from beginning to end — from building cases, filing the actions and gathering evidence to pleading and enforcing, with the supervisor hovering behind in the courtroom and intervening only where absolutely necessary. The firm charges the clients no fees for trying such cases.

Upon completion, successful qualified graduates admitted to practice may join the firm on a permanent basis as associates or junior associates, while undergraduates may continue as parttime paralegals until they qualify and get admitted.

Internships have been open at all INTELLECT-S offices since 2012. Last year, the firm, employed six graduates out of the fourteen it had hosted as interns, including one non-law undergraduate in engineering qualifying in industrial property management, who was assigned to a patent attorney and prosecuted patents for clients' inventions and utility models.