A week in the life
Katie, associate, English Literature graduate from Warwick University
This was a fairly typical working week when I was a trainee in the Competition group. For simplicity's sake, I've excluded the smaller five-to-ten-minute tasks that routinely punctuate a trainee's day, such as looking up precedents or certain clauses within transaction documents, small research jobs and admin tasks such as arranging conference calls.
Monday
AM: Grab a coffee. Catch-up meeting for the big merger I'm working on - we're preparing a notification for the competition authorities in the EU and co-ordinating filings with local counsel in Australia and New Zealand. Draft the weekly email update to the client, then research previous European Commission online advertising case law to help an associate who is drafting a particularly tricky part of the submission.
Lunch: Attend a firm-wide training session on mindfulness as part of Mental Health Awareness Week.
PM: Call between a prospective client and my supervisor. Try to keep my handwriting legible - I'll be asked to write up a note of the call later.
After work: Dinner with my house mate. We have differing schedules but try to set aside at least one evening a week to hang out.
Tuesday
AM: Research competition aspects arising from yesterday's prospective client call.
Questions are in from the Commission on the merger notification, so today's main task is to calculate estimates of our client's market share for the last three years, I'd never thought of myself as a numbers person, but I enjoy the analysis.
Lunch: Lunch at desk.
PM: Add my research to my note of yesterday's prospective client call and send to my supervisor. Continue with my calculations.
After work: Travel to Islington Law Centre, where I volunteer once a month. Today I'm advising on a housing disrepair claim.
Thursday
AM: Run to work. Attend a trainee training session on interpreting company accounts.
Lunch: Grab a quick lunch and prepare some notes to present my piece on the e-commerce sector.
PM: As part of the merger notification, we have to submit a selection of the client's board documents. These have arrived, so we're allocated batches to start sorting.
Grab five minutes to sit down with my supervisor to catch up on some volunteering work I'm doing with him - we're applying for funding for a local youth club.
After work: Stay relatively late to shift the majority of the documents I have left - I like leaving on time on Fridays!
Wednesday
AM: Catch up on some general project management for the merger notification - proofread some finalised annexes and send them to Reprographics to be made into bundles.
Draft a piece on the European Commission's final report on the e-commerce sector inquiry for the 'Best Friends' newsletter.
Lunch: Head to a sushi restaurant to meet some law school friends.
PM: Quiet afternoon. Follow-up work from the Law Centre - I'm drafting a letter before claim. I haven't done one of these before - but the Pre-action Protocols are very thorough and I find a helpful precedent in our internal know-how system. Coffee with a friend in the staff restaurant.
After work: Attend a Women's Network talk with a high-profile external speaker. Stick around for post-talk mingling and canapes.
Friday
AM: Present my piece on the e-commerce sector to the Competition group's weekly client update/general know-how meeting.
Finish off my document review.
Lunch: Eat in the staff restaurant with trainees from my intake.
PM: Asked to draft a power of attorney to enable us to file the merger notification on our client's behalf. Again, find useful precedents in the internal know-how system - feel grateful to whoever had to draft the originals of these.
After work: Most Friday evenings begin the same way - a drink in the local pub with a big group of trainees and some associates. Head off to meeting uni friends for dinner.
