7.30am: I arrive slightly earlier than usual at the office as I know that I have a busy day ahead of me. The most important task of the day is making my first cup of tea, before checking my emails and writing a to-do list for the day.

7.45am: I begin a task for Andy Nichol, a partner in the real estate team, which involves reading through a development agreement for the proposed development of a well-known hotel and drafting a report to be sent to the bank (for which we act). Reading through and understanding the agreement is a long task, but the report is relatively short.

10.00am: I take my first draft of the report to Andy, who goes through it with me and explains any necessary amendments. Several questions arise during our discussion and Andy makes various telephone calls on loudspeaker and dictates emails to be sent out while I am sitting at his desk so that I am kept in the loop. This is an extremely valuable process as I am taken through a complex document step by step so that I am able to better understand how to interpret it for the purposes of reporting to a bank. Finally, Andy gives me another similar file for a hotel development and asks me to draft two lease reports and report on two further agreements.

12.00pm: I get back to my desk, check my emails, follow up any urgent correspondence and add more items to my to-do list.

1.00pm: Several of the trainees and other fee-earners regularly have lunch in the office bistro, so I go up there for a chat with everyone.

1.40pm: I get back to my desk and begin working on some of my own files, which I have conduct of under the supervision of my supervisor Garry King, an associate in the team. I draft an initial engagement letter to a client in relation to a joint instruction with the bank. I receive a telephone call from a client and also begin looking through the searches and enquires for a transaction involving the refinancing of six properties.

4.00pm: While I am working on my own files I have been asked by my supervisor to draft a deed of surrender and a new lease, but he tells me that they are not urgent so I add them to my list together with the date by which they should be done.

5.00pm: I start drafting a lease report for the other hotel file for Andy, as I have been copied in to various emails throughout the day and I feel this transaction is moving quickly and should be given priority. Andy comes over to my desk and tells me that one of the other parties wants to send out engrossments on Monday, so I assure him that I will have completed the reports by the morning.

7.30pm: I am getting very hungry so I decide to call it a night and go home with my reports, as I struggle to work on an empty stomach. It will be a long weekend with the two big hotel developments about to complete, but I know that I can let my hair down next weekend: the firm has paid for the Liverpool trainees to attend the MJLD Ball at the Hilton, so I can have a good catch-up with everyone then.