Tracking a successful career

For many young graduates, getting the right workforce entry opportunity is essential in helping to build their professional networks and can have a significantly positive impact on their career journey.

Phoebe Cuttler’s opportunity came through a social procurement driven partnership between Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV), leading legal firm, Clayton Utz and Career Trackers - a national purpose driven organisation that connects Indigenous university students with employers offering paid internships.

Our social procurement implementation approach has to date focused largely on supporting Program Delivery Approach construction partners working on delivering our projects to achieve greater social value outcomes.

However, over the past few years our focus has expanded to include the introduction of social procurement requirements in professional services contracts. We actively support business partners like Clayton Utz through the process of rethinking their internal purchasing and recruitment decisions.

“At Clayton Utz we’ve always been conscious of diversity including through our recruitment pathways. But what the partnership with MRPV has done is help us merge our social impact initiatives into our core business functions” remarks Andrew Fry, Partner Major Projects.

Although Clayton Utz had previously engaged with Career Trackers it was our focus on creating greater economic opportunities for Indigenous people living in Victoria that helped to drive the partnership between Clayton Utz and Career Trackers Melbourne.

Phoebe Cuttler joined Clayton Utz in November 2019, completing a 12-week placement as one of the firm’s first Career Trackers interns.

“Phoebe came to us with a great attitude and has shone since she arrived. She completed her initial placement, and we were very happy to have her back as a part of our seasonal clerkship program” says Andrew Fry.

Throughout the year Clayton Utz recruits up to 40 law students into their 3-week seasonal clerkship program and it is often from this program that graduates are selected.

In March 2022, Phoebe successfully applied for the Clayton Utz graduate program and in August 2022 was admitted as a lawyer in the Supreme Court.

Through its collaboration with us, Clayton Utz has also expanded its business connections to include work with AMK Law, a 100% owned Aboriginal firm.

“As a service provider, our procurement opportunities can be limited, and there is often a tendency for firms to focus exclusively on pro bono services as a way of giving back. But providing employment opportunities that open doors can have an impact across communities and generations” adds Andrew Fry.

We proudly congratulate Clayton Utz on all their efforts to meaningfully engage with social procurement and wishes Phoebe the best as she embarks on her career.