8.30am: I arrive into work early as I have a corporate trainee training session starting at 9.00am. I check my voicemail and emails and plan my tasks for the day ahead. Another trainee pops into my office to ask me a question about some company statutory books that she has been asked to prepare. I show her what I have done previously and then we decide to make some tea before our training session on joint ventures begins.

10.30am: After the training I have a quick chat with my supervisor about the football the previous evening. He tells me he received a phone call from one of our clients to ask for advice regarding the urgent contract termination of a senior employee. The employee is also a director of the company which makes this a very sensitive situation. My supervisor has set up a meeting with the client for 11.00am along with a partner from our employment department and a partner from our litigation department. He asks me to research what we need from a company law perspective.

11.30am: I do some research and discuss the situation with one of our professional support lawyers. My supervisor comes back from his meeting with the client and I tell him my findings. He instructs me to draft the necessary letters and resolutions as soon as possible and to take everything to the meeting room where the client is waiting. Having to work to a tight time deadline is not unusual in the corporate department. Although it is a lot of pressure, it is often when I am given most responsibility and get the most interesting work.

12.00pm: I have been working on a hotels deal (for a very well-known group of hotels) for a few months and it is due to complete next week. The week leading up to completion is usually a very manic time and I am trying to get as much done as possible to ensure I am organised for the week ahead. The financial advisors have asked us to insert a new company into the purchaser's group for tax reasons. I prepare the necessary board minutes and forms to transfer one of the CMS shelf companies to form the new Midco.

2.00pm: I receive an email from a client who would like to drop off some documents which I had previously requested from him. I agree to meet him in our reception at 5.00pm. Another partner asks me to look at and update his client's articles of association. His client is a search engine company which intended to list on the stock exchange prior to the downturn and its articles need to be updated to reflect the fact that this will no longer happen. I notice that the articles were drafted under the Companies Act 1985 and I decide to update them in line with the provisions of the new Companies Act 2006.

5.00pm: Reception calls to tell me my client has arrived to drop off the documents. The client is a director of a major coffee and sandwich chain and he greets me in reception with a large latte - my favourite coffee. We have a quick chat about the deal that we completed a few weeks ago and then I go back upstairs to check my emails. My supervisor asks me to do some research on a private equity house as he is thinking of pitching them for work. He tells me this is not urgent and gives me a deadline of one week.

6.00pm: Today is the monthly corporate team meeting which is being held on our client floor. We have just had our year end so we discuss our encouraging year end financials and the major deals that the department has worked on over the last month. At the end one of the partners announces that he is putting his card behind the bar at the pub and so we all head down there for pub-grub and drinks.