8.45am: I usually arrive a bit before 9am and head up to our staff restaurant, Cloud 9, for some breakfast. If it's sunny, I like to sit on the terrace with the other trainees and catch up on what everyone has been doing, but if not I tend to take breakfast to my desk so that I can check my emails and voicemails before the day starts and see if anything urgent has come in overnight.
9.00am: I meet with one of our associates, John, to discuss the client meeting we are having in an hour. I recently attended a site visit of this client's premises with my supervisor and, having read the background, have a good idea of the issues that will be dealt with today. It's always really useful to attend site visits on construction matters so that you can see the problems first hand.
10.00am: My supervisor and I attend the client meeting together. I have been helping prepare all the documents for the meeting, and met the client and the architect on the site visit. Today we are conducting a cross-examination of the architect's report and my job will be to minute the meeting and create an attendance note. It's always a little tricky to write attendance notes of expert discussions. Luckily, I have read the expert's report and so have a good idea of what he is going to say!
1.00pm: I pop out for lunch with some of the other trainees. There are so many places to eat in New Street Square that we all go off to our various choices (Itsu and Pod among the most popular) and then meet back in the middle, sitting outside in the sunshine.
2.00pm: I have set aside a couple of hours to work on a research task for my supervisor. Having spoken with the professional support lawyer (PSL) in construction, she has directed me towards the practitioners' texts that will be most useful to my research. Research tasks, especially on smaller points, can sometimes be tricky, but Taylor Wessing's PSLs are really helpful and always point me in the right direction if I don't know where to start.
3.00pm: I haven't finished my research yet, but an associate asks me to help him with an urgent task. It's often the case that your schedule will change over the course of the day as urgent work comes in and you need to re-prioritise. The key is organisation and making sure you've given yourself enough time to do all the work required. Now I must quickly arrange several files of documents that need to go to the engineering experts on one of our cases immediately. He has to have documents by tomorrow morning which means I need to have them ready for the courier by 6pm this evening. Luckily I know this matter quite well and it doesn't take me long to source documents, put them on a CD, draft a cover letter and run everything down to our postroom.
4.30pm: Having completed the urgent task and my research, I start work on a letter of advice to one of our clients. We recently received new instructions on a small matter requiring a review of the documents and a letter of advice and next steps. My supervisor has given the tasks to me. At Taylor Wessing, you're always encouraged to take on as much responsibility as you can as that gives you the opportunity, especially in the later seats, to do work that is similar to that of associate level. Having completed my review and letter, my supervisor and I sit down to go through my work so that we can check that I haven't missed anything before my letter is sent to the client.
6.30pm: I head upstairs to a quiz night that is being run by the commercial disputes team for some of their clients. Although I am not in that department at the moment, I recently found out that I will be qualifying there and so have been invited to join in their client events. At Taylor Wessing there are always client events and socials going on in the evening and it's a great way to meet people and unwind at the end of the day!