8.30 AM
I have arrived at the office and the first thing I do is check my emails to see what the day has in store. I also send a Webex message to my teammates in Sydney to say good morning. My team works across both the Sydney and Canberra offices, and we keep in touch throughout the day with any questions about work, as well as any interesting stories and situations that pop up.
9.30 AM
Coffee culture is very much alive in the legal industry, and it is time to get caffeinated.
I am very lucky to have several junior lawyers on the ground who also love their morning coffee so we all head into the new fancy Staff Café to take advantage of the amazing coffee machine – we use this time to discuss any new or challenging matters we are working on.
10.00 AM
I am appearing in the Personal Injury Commission this morning. The Commission is in NSW, so I’ll be appearing remotely.
The client would like a hearing date and so I spend about 30 minutes going over the file and making sure I am ready to answer any questions the Member or the claimant’s solicitors have for me.
The process is a bit nerve-wracking and it can be hard to know what court etiquette applies in the less formal online setting so, I make sure to check with the Senior Associate based in Canberra that I’m complying with the rules and using the right terminology for the directions I’m seeking.
11.00 AM
Personal Injury Commission appearance done. Time for me to draft an updated advice to the client letting them know about the hearing date we’ve been given.
I’ll start by looking at a few internal files to get an idea of what the senior lawyers on my team would recommend to the client. This gives me a feel for the style and structure of my advice, as well as a few ideas about what steps we will need to take to get the matter ready for hearing. I’ll go back to the Senior Associate to soundboard some of my ideas and seek suggestions about what I might be missing.
Once the advice is drafted, I will send it to the Partner and arrange a time to get his input about my proposed strategy.
1.00 PM
Lunchtime! Time to take a break with a few of my colleagues and step away from our desks for a little while to chat and reset.
2.00 PM
The Partner with who I work for has an open-door policy, and it absolutely applies even with him working in the Sydney office and me in the Canberra office. I’m a bit stuck on what to do in one of my files, so I give him a call to discuss my ideas and get his thoughts.
The Partner offers me a number of different ideas I hadn’t considered, and I now have a range of tasks to fill my afternoon and get the matter moving.
6.00 PM
Before leaving, I do one last scroll through my emails to see if there is anything that urgently needs doing before I head home.
I’ll write myself a to-do list for the next day and head home
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