Australians are renowned for their candour and Michael Bradley, managing partner at antipodean law firm Gadens, is no exception.

In the sort of honest, humorous communication entirely atypical of corporate lawyers, Bradley warns "summer clerkship-desiring desperados" of the travails that await them: "Three and a half years of uni and they make you go through this torture to get one of a small number of summer jobs that are considerably less fun than a week in Amsterdam. It's just not fair."