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I am currently undertaking my third seat in the Commercial team, based in the Exeter office. To provide an insight into what life is like as a Commercial trainee at Michelmores, I have set out a recent day of mine below:
06:25 – I roll out of bed and into the yoga kit I left out the night before, and lie down on my yoga mat in the kitchen. Eyes are still relatively shut.
06:30 – I get an aggressively energic morning greeting from my online yoga class and I begin to flow. Slowly I start to wake up and fall into my body. I’m feeling pretty zingy until savasana at around 07:25, during which I have a micro-nap under my lavender eye mask before my heavenly sadist of a teacher shouts me awake through my phone, and wishes me a good day.
07:35 – I get into the shower, flicking on Radio 4 as I go. My parents always listened to the Today Show when we were growing up, and consequentially my siblings and I tune in every weekday morning – it makes me smile to think we’re all listening to it at the same time wherever we are in the country. If I’m ready by 8:10 I treat myself to the most pretentious coconut matcha flat white laced with collagen (supplied by the aptly named “Ancient and Brave” because unlike the other trainees, I’m pushing 33), and then drive to work.
08:45-9:00 – I arrive at the Exeter office and head up to the second floor where the Business Group sit. We use a hot desk system, however people do end up sitting near or around their teams, which means as a trainee in the Commercial team, who usually sit right at the end of the floor, I get to do lovely little parade of good mornings past the Employment, Corporate and Litigation teams, before arriving at my desk.
The desk I arrive at is embarrassingly in breach of the hot desk policy – it has been ergonomically adjusted within an inch of its life. As a yogi (and a mild hypochondriac) I am obsessed with posture, and Michelmores have been wildly gracious about supplying me with my ever-developing physical needs. This means I am standing at a sit stand desk, complete with a foot stool, booster cushion, and a vertical mouse. Don’t worry I’m acutely aware that this is screaming for a walking pad – I’ve got my eyes on one as a post-qualification treat.
09:00 – 09:30 –I look at my emails and my diary for the day and upcoming week and plan my to do list accordingly. I have a client call with my supervisor later in the day regarding data protection with an existing client. I therefore make sure to diarise time for reading in prior to the call, as well as writing up the attendance note after, as I find my notes are better, and easier to write straight after the call.
9:30 – No time like present! I begin looking into the client’s file and research the company to get a good idea of what they do, their commercial position and what data protection policies they may require.
10:00 – I toddle off to get a coffee pretending it’s to maintain healthy body movement and time away from a screen, but really, I’m mildly addicted to coffee.
10:10 – I review feedback I received on a Deed of Termination that I drafted the previous day and make some amendments following this. Once done, I send it back to the lawyer supervising the matter for review.
10:40 – I move on to the IP Deed of Assignment I have been asked to draft this morning. I haven’t had much experience with assigning IP, and so I spend some time researching the document on Practical Law and reviewing the drafting notes to understand how the document works. My supervisor has also asked me to draft it as a deed and so I also research why this may be necessary. I then review the client’s file to get an understanding of the business and what IP they are trying to protect.
11:20 – I pull up the precedent I’ve found on Practical Law and begin drafting.
12:30 – I warm up my lunch and eat it on the terrace with a couple of colleagues. I go for a walk around the beautiful trails that are located at the back of the Exeter office. I get lost (it’s bigger than you think!).
13:30 – I find my way back to the office and return to drafting the Deed of Assignment.
14:45 – I take myself off for a tea and to stretch my legs prior to my call. If it’s a great day, I’ve managed to get my paws on something sweet at this point. Like a Nakd bar. Or a chocolate covered fig. Or a piece of shortbread or honestly, anything. Anything at all. Please give me snacks.
14:55 – I get back to my desk, lower it to a sitting position, and get ready to dial into the client call. My supervisor briefs me prior to letting the client into the virtual meeting room. After we both introduce ourselves, I go on mute and take a note of the call. I try and keep up, and where I’m unsure about what is being discussed, I write everything verbatim to discuss with my supervisor after the call.
15:30 – When the call ends, I begin to write up the notes into a coherent attendance note (not the scrabbling short-hand of my internal stream of consciousness). In the call, the client and my supervisor discussed soft opt-in marketing, so I spend some time researching soft opt-in marketing to make sure my notes make sense in context. I send the draft to my supervisor for review and ask her to confirm my understanding of the rules around soft opt-in marketing, and whether she’d like me to have a stab at a first draft of the advice note for the client.
16:10 – I make myself a peppermint tea (if you haven’t realised yet I am completely reward motivated and the only way I can encourage myself to move away from my desk is in pursuit of a selection of different consumables throughout the day).
16:20 – I return to drafting the Deed of Assignment.
17:30 – I finish drafting the Deed of Assignment. It requires proof reading but as I’ve been working on it for a lot of the afternoon, I leave the proof reading until first thing tomorrow morning when I will have fresher eyes to spot mistakes. In the meantime, the supervisor has come back to me and approved the Deed of Termination and so I draft an email to the client and send the document to them. I finish off the day by updating my trainee journal on the work I’ve completed this week.
18:00 – I have a look at my diary for tomorrow to see what I have on and make sure there’s nothing in particular that I need to prepare for or dress for the following day (my memory is cheekily unreliable), and then I log off and head home. Fingers crossed it’s a Friday and there’s a glass of wine waiting for me when I arrive!
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