Day in the life of a construction trainee solicitor

8:00am - I head into work on the tube and after picking up a mandatory Pret coffee, walk across the bridge to the office. It is a gorgeous morning and the views into the office are unmatched!

9:00am - I pick up some breakfast from the 6th floor and take it to my desk to enjoy whilst checking any emails which have come in since yesterday and make a to-do list for the day. I tend to keep an ongoing list of tasks on my laptop, and review this in the morning to jot down a handwritten action list for the day (allowing a bit of flexibility for any urgent tasks).

9:30am - The Construction team hold monthly team meetings to share any updates or training. It's also a nice chance to catch up with the wider team!

10:00am - We have an upcoming call with a witness in an arbitration. In preparation, I am tasked with compiling a skeleton of the witness statement to include a chronology of events relating to the Defective Premises Act on which we will be asking for the witness's comments. 

11:00am - We are currently at the disclosure stage of various arbitrations, which involves an extensive review of documents received from the client. I spend some time reviewing documents for relevance ahead of the upcoming disclosure deadline. 

12:30pm - I head for some lunch in the office with my team, followed by a sunny walk along the river and an ice cream!

1:00pm - I continue reviewing documents for a few more hours before moving on to my other tasks for the day. I am assisting with finalising a suite of framework agreements, and we have just received comments back from the consultants on the drafts. I review the marked up agreements and compile a table of amendments which we will pass on to the client for their comments. 

4:30pm - I have been set a legal research task relating to some queries received from Counsel as part of an ongoing adjudication. I review some case law regarding reasonable settlement and damages and draft a note writing up my conclusions. I have found it particularly interesting to work on adjudications over my time in construction, as a form of alternative dispute resolution that I had not previously worked on. 

6:00pm - I leave the office to head home. I am currently training for the Royal Parks Half Marathon which I am running alongside my HK colleagues in support of Making the Leap, the firm's charity of the year. I squeeze in an evening training run along the river to round off the day.