9.00am: It's Thursday, which means we have our weekly tax training session. I ride my bike to work, shower, get ready and meet the department for the training session. The disadvantage of having half an hour's less kip on Thursdays is balanced by the fact that we get breakfast during training. Coffee and bacon sandwiches all round!This training session is an informal update on tax developments in the past week. Each person is allocated a topic and leads the discussion on it. I am focusing on changes to the foreign profits rules for companies under the new Finance Bill. Heavy stuff.10.00am: I get back to my desk, check my emails and write a to-do list. It took me a while to get into the habit of doing this, but now I am reliant on it. I share an office with my supervisor, Will, so we spend a few minutes chatting about what we did last night.We are managing the payments of a tax retention account following a deal that completed recently. There are complications and a litigation partner has asked us to write a letter to the other side. It's a sensitive issue so careful drafting is required. Will looks at what I have done, I make a few changes, then send the letter out.11.30am: I get a coffee to combat the mid-morning lull and then go back to the office. We are working on a tax disclosure for a bond issue of a major client and there is an Irish tax element to what we are doing. We need the Irish counsel's input on one of the points so I email our Irish advisers setting out the issue. They call me back and we discuss the issue. Fortunately, the situation is straightforward.

I send an email to Will updating him.12.15pm: Tummies have started rumbling amongst the trainee group and people send emails arranging lunch. It's sunny, so I am angling to go outside.Following the training session there are some documents that must be uploaded to the tax department's know-how system. This is a bank of precedent documents, details of past deals and technical updates. I find the documents I need on the internet and add them to the system.1.00pm: I meet the trainees outside. We get some food from a street market near the office and sit in the park. There is a good bit of gossip from the last night out to get through. 2.00pm: Back to the office. We are doing some work for a major client who is involved in setting up a new clearing house for derivative transactions and they have asked us for our thoughts on structure of the new group. The tax partner, Iain, asks me to prepare a memo for him and some of the US lawyers explaining one of the potential tax implications of using a particular structure. I read through a chain of email correspondence to fully understand what is proposed and then begin my research.I discuss the points with Will then draft the memo. I am conscious that my memo may be read by some pretty senior people, so I am keen to get it exactly right.5.00pm: I send the memo to Iain. There is a call with our clients and the US lawyers. I sit in during the call. My memo is discussed on the call and the client, in light of our advice, decides to follow a different route.6.15pm: We go to a seminar on a decision of the tax tribunal that has ramifications for a client. There might be scope for our client to make a claim for relief from tax using losses accrued in some of its European subsidiaries. The claim could be a very large amount of money. I take notes and discuss the case with Will as we go back to the office.7.30pm: A friend has recently started his training contract at a firm nearby, so I head off to meet him for a quick drink before going home.