8.40am: My average working day starts here. I make sure I am in the office by this time in case something urgent comes up and needs sorting first thing. My current seat is commercial litigation and today is going to be a busy day.

9.00am: I have been assisting one of the associates with a matter in which we are acting for a recruitment agency client who is seeking to recover a debt. I make sure I am prepared for a quick call with counsel later before the summary judgment hearing.

10.00am: Counsel calls to say that they have arrived at the court, and run through their instructions again and ask me to confirm a few additional points from my brief and the documents I have prepared for them. Depending on the case at hand, counsel often only has a few days to prepare and there are always issues to iron out and instructions to confirm.

10.30am: I attend a charity committee meeting. Corporate responsibility is one of the firm's business strategies and trainees are encouraged to get involved wherever they can. I attend a meeting to discuss future fundraising ideas for our current charity, Help For Heroes.

11.00am: After the meeting and with the summary judgment hearing under way, I am free to work on other matters. I call a client on a long-running construction and collateral warranty matter that will shortly proceed to mediation. Having previously discussed the issues with one of the associates, I run through the evidential developments arising from the files that the client has recently provided.

12.00pm: Next, I call a client with whom I have arranged to take a witness statement. The witness is a director of the claimant company who is looking to recover unpaid agency fees. I have already prepared a full list of questions earlier on in the week and am well prepared. It is great that I have had so much client contact during my seat, and I have enjoyed mastering the skill of taking witness statements over the phone.

1.30pm: I receive an email from my supervisor requesting help for an upcoming trial that she is running. It is only a few days away and due to the claimant dis-instructing his solicitors we are required to make up the trial bundles urgently. Although this is a standard task for a trainee, these trial bundles are different as this case is being heard in the High Court and I need to comply with High Court witness referencing requirements.

3.30pm: Having completed the trial bundles, I have time to complete some of my less urgent work. Due to the standard of work that I have produced while in this department I have been allowed to run a few small files myself under supervision. They relate to various over-payments to previous employees of a client.

4.30pm: Counsel phones with an update from today's summary judgment hearing and confirms she will forward her notes after the call for my review and further instruction.

5.00pm: I start on some research for one of the partners in the team. I look into a road traffic accident and in particular research the positioning of the sun in the sky on the date of the accident to determine whether the sun could have been shining in the other party's eyes.

6.30pm: Normally, I would leave the office about this time to go home to have dinner with my wife and put my daughter to bed, followed by a game of squash with a friend. Tonight however, there is a drinks social event on for young professionals called 'New Friday' organised by the Shoosmiths trainees. I therefore head out to this with some other trainees.