Job Description

Legal - Intern (6 months)
Location: London, SW1Y 5HX
Application Deadline: 2 December 2025, 17:00GMT
We are seeking a highly motivated Legal Intern to join the Legal Counsel's Office team for six-months internship.
The Legal Counsel's Office sits within the wider Secretary-General's Office. It advises the Secretary-General, the Senior Management Committee, and the wider Secretariat on legal considerations arising in the conduct of the Secretariat's organisational matters, as well as briefing the Governing Boards and Audit Committee on request. Their work spans international organisations law, international administrative law and relevant domestic laws of the UK (as host country) and other Commonwealth jurisdictions.
The internship offers an excellent opportunity for recent graduates to gain practical experience on a wide range of legal and administrative tasks in a professional legal environment.
The Legal Intern's duties and responsibilities will include:

• conducting legal research on various issues on international, public, private and administrative law and international regulatory best practice.
• assisting in drafting and reviewing legal documents, including contracts, confidentiality agreement and memoranda of understanding.
• preparing and maintaining chronologies and indices/legal bundles of legal matters.
• developing workflows of internal processes, policies, and procedures.
• supporting the Legal Counsel's Office in preparing for meetings or other activities; and
• assisting with administrative tasks as needed.

To be considered for this internship, the candidate must be between 20 and 30 years of age and have completed a law degree from a recognised university. A postgraduate degree in a relevant legal discipline or currently enrolled in one would be desirable. Demonstrable experience in conducting legal research and document review on legal matters, as well as excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, strong IT proficiency and a high attention to detail is required.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 56 member countries and provides guidance on policy making, technical assistance and advisory services to Commonwealth member countries. We support governments to help achieve sustainable, inclusive, and equitable development.
To join us, you must be a citizen of a Commonwealth member country and have the right to live and work in the UK for the full duration of the internship.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of .
It is home to 2.5 billion people, and includes both advanced economies and developing countries. 33 of our members are small states, including many island nations.
Our member governments have agreed to shared goals like development, democracy and peace. Our values and principles are expressed in the .
The Commonwealth's roots go back to the British Empire. But today the modern Commonwealth. The last two countries to join the Commonwealth were Gabon and Togo in 2022.

Skills Required