Over 40% of law students have completed unpaid internships – the market needs change!
At Sendero, we have a clear position: internships must be paid, substantive and transparent from day one. An intern in our team is not an observer, but a full member of the team. This is what we talked about, among other things, during the ELSA Wrocław Internship Fair at the University of Wrocław, where we had the opportunity to meet with students in April and show them what our internship model looks like.

Although law students are increasingly positive about the quality of education at universities, their professional experience shows the brutal truth: unpaid internships are still the norm. The report ‘Law Students in Poland 2025’, prepared by ELSA Poland, shows that as many as 40% of respondents had completed internships for which they received no remuneration, and 68% consider this phenomenon to be a serious systemic problem.

What else do the data say?

• 16% of students who received any remuneration declare rates of PLN 1-10 per hour,
• over 11% completed internships without any contract or payment,
• many respondents point to the lack of transparency of offers and symbolic terms of cooperation.
Let us remember that first professional experiences shape not only competences, but also the standards of the entire market.