Internship Programme Italy, March 2025

The role

Overview: 
Explore the intersection between law and business. Find out how an international law firm makes an impact in Italy and across the world. Develop the foundation of skills you need for a global legal career. You’ll do all this and more during your 6-month full time and paid internship in our Milan or Rome office, taking place from March 2025 to September 2025. 

Your time with us: 
This isn’t just a chance to shadow our lawyers. You’ll play an active role in our teams and take on responsibility from day one. You’ll attend court hearings, work with clients and develop your professional network. Experience the cutting edge of the legal sector and discover how law can unlock potential across the world and in your own career. See how our purpose-led organisation makes a difference beyond our day-to-day work through programmes like our pro bono work and sustainability commitments. 
The Internship is your chance to see if law is a career you can thrive in. You’ll also develop your personal and professional skillset through experiences that will be valued in any sector you choose to continue into. You’ll undertake work experience in one of our practice groups. We’ll try our best to allocate you to a practice group based on your preferences which you’ll share with us in advance. We’ll evaluate the possibility of offering successful candidates a permanent opportunity when they finish their internship.

During the internship, you will: 

• Work on a variety of interesting challenges across different sectors. 
• Join a diverse and friendly team while collaborating with colleagues across the world. 
• Have opportunities to engage with initiatives beyond your role, including technology, sustainability, and pro bono work. 
• Develop essential business skills through our extensive learning programmes and supportive culture. 
• Get support from a network of supervisors, buddies and mentors to develop confidence and identify your own personal and professional goals. 
• Be part of an international Early Careers community full of talented colleagues who will become part of your global network. 
• Enjoy a working environment where your wellbeing is always a priority and your workload will be managed to ensure you can always deliver your best. Gain support for your registration for the mandatory traineeship to qualify for the bar exam (pratica forense) or for the chartered accountant exam. 
• Be able to structure your working week so you can balance your time between the office and home through our agile approach called WorkSmart.  

Eligibility:

• You’ll need to be a strong English speaker, reader and writer as you will work in both Italian and English. Also: 
• You’ll be a final year law or economics student in Italy. We also welcome applications from recent law or economics graduates, provided that you’ve graduated within 6 months of the internship start date. 
• You’ll have the right to work in Italy for the duration of the programme. We are unable to sponsor visas for the Internship.
• Only one application can be made per year.

What we look for:
In addition to the eligibility criteria, we look for those with the skills that will enable success at DLA Piper and within a legal career. These include, but are not limited to: 

• Motivation to work in the legal industry and start your career with us.
• A desire to learn more, proactively seeking opportunities to do so.
• Taking pride in every aspect of your work, where no detail is too small. 
• Connecting with others to create long lasting relationships.
• Adapting your approach depending on the situation and in the face of any setbacks. 

The application process:

• Complete our application form, preferably in English, to give us some key information about you. We’ll ask you about why you’re applying to DLA Piper and we’ll also ask you to confirm your practice group preferences. And we’ll ask you to submit a CV and your academic transcripts. 
• After submitting your application, you’ll be invited to complete some online assessments to test your English language, we’ll give you the chance to demonstrate your writing, strengths and help us to know you better. 
• The final stage is an interview which will give you the chance to demonstrate your strengths and help us get to know you better.
• We recruit on a rolling basis, so you’re encouraged to apply ahead of the application deadline. 

Learn more by visiting our early careers website. 

ABOUT US
DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers and business service professionals located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Our global reach ensures that we can help businesses with their legal needs anywhere in the world. We strive to be the leading global business law firm by delivering quality, service excellence and value to our clients and offering practical and innovative legal solutions to help them succeed. Our clients range from multinational, Global 1000, and Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging companies developing industry-leading technologies, as well as government and public sector bodies.

OUR VALUES
In everything we do connected with our People, our Clients and our Communities, we live by these values:

• Be Supportive – we are compassionate and inclusive, valuing diversity and acting thoughtfully
• Be Collaborative – we are proactive, passionate team players investing in our relationships
• Be Bold – we are fearless and inquisitive, challenging ourselves to think big and find creative new solutions
• Be Exceptional – we are strategic and driven, exceeding standards and expectations

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
At DLA Piper, diversity and inclusion underpins how we live our values and everything we do. We believe that everyone has a voice, and that everyone’s voice counts. We know that the rich diversity across our firm makes us stronger, more innovative and creative, which helps us to better serve our clients and communities. We are committed to providing an inclusive working environment and culture across our global firm, where everyone can bring their authentic self to work.
Diversity of perspective, thought, background and culture combine to make us the leading global law firm; that’s why we actively seek to build balanced teams. We welcome the unique contribution that you will bring to our firm and actively encourage applications from all talented people – however your talent is packaged, whatever your background or circumstance and regardless of how you identify.

HYBRID WORKING
We recognise that people have responsibilities and interests outside of their career and that as a business, we all benefit from working flexibly. That’s why we are open to discussing with candidates the different ways in which we are able to support requests for agile working arrangements.