9.00am: Over my morning tea I go through the EU competition news updates. The department puts a lot of emphasis on keeping up-to-speed with current events and a group email flags up an interesting case going before the Competition Tribunal. One of the partners asks for a volunteer to write an article for publication about the ramifications for consumers, which I take up with an associate. This gives me the opportunity to do some broader research in an area of law that I really enjoy.9.30am: We gather for a team meeting to discuss one of the big cases in the department, involving an international cartel where our client is being investigated by the US Department of Justice (DoJ). Disclosure material has been collated for months and part of the trainee's role is to assist in going through the company's internal documentation to identify correspondence demonstrating collusion. These have to be produced to the DoJ so we are liaising closely with our US counterparts.

12.00pm: A co-trainee has just come back from a business trip where she had to collect confidential information from our Brussels office, so we gather for a quick break over Belgian chocolate. 1.00pm: One of the senior associates holds an informal training session over lunch on monopolies, abuse of dominance and Article 82 EC. Associates frequently hold these sessions for trainees to introduce key concepts in competition law and how they have been applied. 2.30pm: The afternoon is taken up with work on a pro bono project that I have initiated and that the firm are supporting me in setting up. The project is called i-ProBono - a networking website for the pro bono community, bringing together organisations in the social sector with legal professionals and students who want to contribute to the public good. Today I am meeting with members of staff around the firm to find out how they can get involved in the project. The firm has a real commitment to pro bono work and actively encourages staff to get involved with current initiatives, such as Queen Mary's Legal Advice Centre and other Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects. 3.30pm: i-ProBono.com launches in late 2009, but I have been receiving various requests from charities who require immediate assistance. Today I receive an email from an education charity requiring advice about assigning its intellectual property to another organisation. The issue is very interesting, so I do some initial research and speak with one our partners in IP who takes the matter on. It's fairly straightforward and within a couple of hours of requesting assistance, the charity's query is settled. 4.30pm: We are looking into hosting solutions for i-ProBono and realise that there may be data protection issues to address. I spend the rest of the afternoon researching the principles involved in collecting personal data from our users. This involves investigating whether our prospective hosting provider in the US is certified under the Safe Harbor arrangement and speaking with solicitors in our technology department about the consents we need to acquire from our users. The great thing about working on i-ProBono and pro bono work in general is the opportunity to gain exposure to different areas of the law and work with various people across the firm.6.30pm: One of the paralegals in the team is off to go travelling around the world so the department heads off for farewell drinks. I stay for a couple before meeting a colleague from another firm for a music event hosted by one of the charities that we have assisted through i-ProBono - apparently there's a special guest involved...