From the Melbourne JD to the magic circle

Vidit Mehra has landed his dream job at a magic circle law firm earlier than he expected.

Vidit Mehra

The third-year Melbourne JD student will work in the Perth office of Clifford Chance from early next year, skipping a step in his career plan and thrusting him straight into one of the largest firms in the world.

"I planned to start in top-tier firm in Melbourne and then move on to the larger firms, as I had not expected to get into a law firm like Clifford Chance," he says.

"But fortunately I did, so there has been no looking back."

It has been an interesting path to this point for Vidit, having completed high school in India before doing undergraduate studies in engineering.

He says his interest in law came reasonably late.

"I was going to go interstate for a job in engineering before I realised how non-excited I was about the upcoming job so I put in an application for law school," Vidit says.

"You don't often get engineers studying law."

Vidit says getting to know his cohort and the student experience at MLS have been highlights.

In particular, the opportunity to undertake a placement in an Indian law firm as part of Law and Legal Practice in Asia proved invaluable.

"I worked at one of India's largest law firms. Practice there is so different," Vidit says.

"But I was getting exposure to clients, sitting in day-long negotiations with CEOs of huge government bodies. It was really good."

The 25-year-old says the opportunity to work at Clifford Chance is the right path for achieving his career goals.

"I want to work in energy and resources, and Perth is the capital for that," he says.

"Clifford Chance is the kind of firm that you can have an international career with, and I want to work across the Asia Pacific region.

"It is highly specialised; they only do high-end finance, mergers and acquisitions and litigation in Australia, and I want to end up in this area of work.

"I am extremely excited."

By Andy Walsh