Bits and Bobs

In recent weeks, I have found myself doing a lot of admin tasks, research, and the formalities of transactions. I have spent some time out of office which has meant that I had some early starts at work to catch up. This can sometimes make me feel like I've been in the office all day, but needs must!

At the moment my life feels like I am constantly on the go. The problem with me is that I love to be busy. Even if I give myself a day to rest, within an hour or two I find myself bored, I always find that there is something to do!

Outside of work, not only do I partake in bodybuilding, but I also bake cakes (contradictory, I know!). Baking and decorating cakes is the most therapeutic hobby I have. With weightlifting, I come out of the gym even more tired and sore than when I went in. But with cakes, it gives me a chance to create something beautiful and it makes people happy.

I sell cakes to people in the Suffolk and North Essex area. You can see my page at www.facebook.com/glutenfreefairy1.

As you can probably tell, all of my cakes are gluten free, but that doesn't mean you have to be gluten intolerant to try them. All of my cakes and bakes are tested on people without a gluten intolerance and they really like them. So go and have a look!

It is now 3 months until I qualify. Within this period, I have so much to look forward to, including two holidays. I have also found an NQ Solicitor position that I feel suits me very well, but unfortunately this means that I will not be staying with my current firm. Regardless of the change, I am looking forward to the new challenge. This year is turning out to be a very happy and successful year for me so I am loving every moment!

So Many Options...

As a Trainee coming to the end of my training contract, it is only right that I keep my options open.

It's easy to forget that you are working based on a fixed term contract and that at the end of the two years you actually need to think about what is best for you.

The advantage of being an NQ, is that you can literally do anything you want. You have the option to qualify in something that someone else wouldn't even think of.

For me, I have no commitments or ties to anything. I'm 25, mortgage free and no children. The world is my oyster!

I have options and opportunities, I'm grateful that I'm able to explore them. It's process of elimination time. What is best for me?!

Reality is definitely hitting me now. It's exciting, but completely nerve racking at the same time. I'm pretty sure I've said this throughout my training contract though...

Another week in commercial property means land registry applications, adverse possession and tenancy agreements. I still get moments where I still wonder what on earth I'm doing and whether the work I'm producing is ok. For those that are in the first stages of training, as a heads up, you'll probably feel like this for the next four years! It's all varied and it's all good fun!

Change, Change, Change

In the last few weeks, I have changed departments, I have completed the Professional Skills Course (PSC), and I have my own office. I'm pretty sure this wasn't intentional of my firm but it still seems awesome to me!

My final PSC class was "Effective Written Communication". It may seem a little dull at first, however I did actually find this class very beneficial. It has made me focus more on my punctuation when I write to lawyers and clients and how I write to people in general.

Now that I am in Commercial Property, I have assisted with lease renewals, applications of adverse possession, modification of restrictions and much more. Again, I am assisting with a variety of work, just how I like it.

I am trying not to look so far into the future as I know that the big day is just around the corner, ignore is bliss, right? So for now, I'm rolling with it!

My Last Week in Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury

It's that time again, for me to say goodbye to my current seat. In the end I stayed in the Clin Neg/PI department for 7 months, and needless to say I saw a lot.

I was given a wide variety of work to do and each case that I worked on was completely different. I almost feel a little naïve in that I did not realise what some people really do go through, and I feel very lucky to have the life that I have.

I was also happy that I had the opportunity to attend a trial. Trials can be rare as parties are more willing to settle outside of Court, so it was great that I was able to witness some cross examination taking place.

Now the real countdown begins as I take my final seat on Monday, being Commercial Property. It's as if I've done a full circle, I started at my firm as a Commercial Property Paralegal and now I will be back there as a Trainee Solicitor.

I am hoping that I will enjoy my time in Commercial Property and that these next five months don't go too fast!

Lawyer by Day, Bodybuilder by Night!

As I've previously mentioned, I had a fitness competition coming up. Most people know that I am a very keen weightlifter but only a select few knew that I had signed myself up to a bikini fitness competition. A bit different for a lawyer, but I love being different and trying new things!

For those that don't know, a bikini fitness competition basically means that you have to stand on stage in a bikini and do set poses for judges to examine and judge your body. It sounds ridiculous, but it was so much fun!

As part of my preparation for this I had to cut down my body fat to as little as possible and tone myself up by weightlifting. In order to show off a toned physique, I had approximately four layers of fake tan applied to my body and make up painted on to my face. Yes, I am still orange!

This event gives a person like me the chance to release their attitude and show everyone their sassiness on stage. It is so much more fun than I can describe! And as part of your routine, you need to show elegance and poise, something that I actually struggle with. I'm more of a converse and baggy top kind of woman.

This was my first competition so as I expected, I was not placed in the top three. My feedback was to act more confident and tense my muscles more, I was happy with that.

The event was over so quickly and it now seems like such a blur, but the 16 weeks of diet and training was all worth it. I am already looking for my next competition!

So that's just an insight into what I do outside of work. As I have been on a diet for the past four months, I have spent this week eating. I am currently baking different gluten free cakes, cookies and pastry items. I have a massive sweet tooth so I am making the most of it!

I was back to work on Wednesday this week and as I currently have a patchy tan, a few questions have been asked. I find myself asserting that four layers of tan is not my usual choice!

I also had my end of seat appraisal which went well. I move into my final seat at the end of June, so I'm looking forward to the change.

My Last Six Months

I can't believe the position that I'm currently in, it's six months until I qualify.

My current thought is: "what on earth do I do with myself?", it's gone so quick that I still remember my first days as a Trainee like it was yesterday!

Now that I've come to a stage like this I feel like I have to think about my career seriously, on things such as what area do I actually want to qualify in? It's crazy to think that I have to start doing this.

Being a Trainee for the last year and a half has definitely helped me distinguish between the areas that I do and do not like. I think that this is the best part of the process, it enables you to know for sure if you're missing out on anything, or not.

They do say time goes very quickly and now I know what they mean. We are in the sixth month of the year already, soon it will be Christmas again! Not that I'm complaining, chocolate!

Within these next sixth months I have so much to look forward to. My fitness competition is in 10 days, I am heading to Anacapri, Italy in September, and the day that I qualify I am travelling to Gothenburg, Sweden. I qualify in November and on a Thursday so it was a convenient time to take a long weekend to celebrate and see the Christmas markets. I'm not running from responsibility!

As I say every now and again, I'm embracing the madness, the worry and the unknown. But that's all part of being a Trainee. Everything works out in the end, I'm just excited to see where the second half of this year will take me.

This week I have been drafting documentation for personal injury claims. Documents such as schedules of special damages, witness statements and consent orders. This gives me the opportunity to get to know the file and understand the claim that is being filed at Court.

I have not been told what my next seat will be yet, but I'm sure I will find out imminently, so I'm looking forward to that and will be sure to let you know as soon as possible.

A Sweaty Day in London

There's no denial that this week has been a hot one, and what better way to spend my Thursday than to sit on a stuffy train to London and walk past high rise buildings reflecting the heat back on to me.

Thursday I attended my penultimate Professional Skills Course class which focused on "a Law Firm as a Commercial Enterprise".

This class focused on how to attract clients, how firms can expand their client base and how to keep up with the ever increasing competition in the area. Our tasks were to identify the pros and cons of two fictional law firms and analyse how they can change in order to succeed.  In the second half of the day, the class was split into two groups in order to represent the two fictional law firms. Each law firm had to present a pitch to a corporate client in order to win them over and assist them with an acquisition.

Luckily the classroom had air conditioning so we were fine inside, however the heat really did hit you as you walked out. I suffer from a blood disorder which makes me extremely sensitive to sunlight, it can burn me very easily and cause horrific consequences (yes, I am one of those people who avoid the light!). So I had to be very careful, but luckily I do not have one of the worst cases of my condition so I can handle walking around in the heat, as long as I am appropriately covered up. I'm not quite a full vampire!

I hope everyone has a lovely bank holiday weekend and the scheduled rain for Sunday and Monday holds off. Enjoy yourselves!

Juggling Everything

This week I have been struggling to juggle my lifestyle, hobbies and work. The reason for this is because my current hobby requires me to restrict my diet and increase my physical exercise.

The impact that this is currently having on my daily life is massive. I have felt fatigued, unmotivated and I have a constant headache. You might ask why I am doing something that will cause this but I can assure you that the event I'm taking part in is in about three weeks time so I won't feel like this for much longer!

I don't think this muggy and sticky weather is helping too much either. I have actually voluntarily stood in the rain this week because I have been that irritated by the heat!

All of that added to the usual Trainee worry of thinking that everything you do is wrong makes things a bit difficult, but we get through it because my way of looking at life is to just roll with it.

It's made me realise how you really do need to balance out your life to feel positive both in the work place and in general. You really do need to look after yourself to bring out your full potential in all situations.

I am very much looking forward to this weekend where I can relax and feed myself up on some good food to bring up my energy levels again. I felt a bit more energetic today (Friday), so at least I didn't feel like a zombie!

Dinner by the Boats

This week I had the opportunity to go to the Royal Harwich Yacht Club to join members of the Medico Legal Society for dinner and a talk.

This event takes place every so often at different venues and gathers lawyers, doctors and other medical experts together.

The talk centred around consent given by patients for medical procedures, and a medical professional's obligation to provide the patient with all the risks that may be involved. I found this topic rather interesting, as there were many views given by various medical experts.

At the end of the talk, we were provided with a three course meal, which I wolfed down in about three seconds. I've been on a diet and so I made sure that I enjoyed this meal!

This was my last Medico Legal Society meeting as my seat in Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury ends soon, so unfortunately I'm unable to look forward to the next one. But I did have a lovely time and enjoyed looking over the boats and the River Orwell.

Interviews

This week finished with something different. Friday morning I was asked to interview some year 12 students at a local boarding school. The session was created to help the students gain the experience of being interviewed by someone that they are not familiar with. This event was organised by both the school and the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce and professionals from local businesses were invited to take part as the interviewers.

I was assigned five students and I was given their CV to read in advance, as well as the job description. I had 30 minutes for each student to interview them as if they were applying for a real job.

It was quite odd being the interviewer. The last time I had an interview it was for my training contract, and we all know how tough they are so I really felt for the students. The students looked a bit nervous too, so I had to make them feel a bit more relaxed.

I had to ask them the usual questions i.e. "what are your strengths and weaknesses?", "why this company?" and "describe a time in your life when you were put in a difficult situation".

If the interview finished early, I gave the students tips and advice on performing well in interviews. I also advised them on improving their CVs and I answered questions that they had on anything to do with applications, interviews and University.

I hope that I was of some help to the students and that they are able to take my advice and use it in the future.

Court and Courses

In my last post I mentioned that I would write about a trial and a course that I was going to attend, so as promised, here we are!

On Tuesday I went to Court to watch the first day of a trial. This meant that I had the opportunity to observe a whole day in Court where witnesses, including individual and expert witnesses, were cross examined.

I found the day really interesting and it was easy to see how individuals can feel intimidated when having a barrister question them for quite a long period of time. Quite different to how we act it out in our advocacy classes on the PSC!

Few cases come to trial now as everyone is focused on settling outside of Court, so I was happy that this opportunity came up during my seat.

On Wednesday, I travelled to London to attend one of my PSC classes. This class was called "is it enforceable?" And was all about learning how documents should be executed correctly, including agreements and deeds.

I actually found this course rather beneficial. As part of the "electronic" generation of lawyers, we always have some form of precedent to refer to when we are drafting documents, so sometimes we don't actually understand why we are drafting something in a certain way. Rather, we just draft a document knowing that it is the correct way of doing so. So it helped my background knowledge, plus I had a really nice class so that was helpful!

We're at the end of yet another week, and in receipt of yet another Bank Holiday, yippee! I hope that you all enjoy your weekend, hopefully the cold weather will pick up, but it probably won't.

Post-Easter Blues

Well I hope that everyone had a lovely Easter and made the most of their time off, it certainly went by in a flash. I spent my weekend in North Yorkshire and I went out every day to see the different sites, it was great! I think my post-Easter blues started when I was caught in standstill traffic whilst travelling back home on the A1, it was at that moment that I thought, "can't this weekend be at least one day longer?".

The weekend almost feels like a distant memory now that we have come to the end of yet another week. It was back to the paperwork for everyone and I was definitely sad to be back in the office.

This week, I have been involved in a variety of work. I have been drafting letters of claim, putting together bundles and carrying out research. It was also my time to volunteer at the Suffolk Law Advice Centre again. These sessions come round once every three months, but time goes so quickly it feels like the sessions arrive much quicker.

The appointments at the Suffolk Law Advice Centre involved issues such as neighbour disputes and speeding fines, so it was nice to be able to advise on different topics.

In addition to all of this work, I attended a talk at my firm's office about concussion. I would say that a benefit of working in clinical negligence and personal injury is that you get to learn about all kinds of medical problems, even if they can be nasty.

As for next week, I am in Court for two days and also in London on my Professional Skills Course again, so it will be a busy one. I will make sure that I write about that next week.

Busy, Busy, Busy

These past two weeks have been extremely busy, and not in my working life! Last week was a week where everything decided to break. My car broke, my partner's car broke and we managed to blow the electrics with the kettle, what a nightmare!

It's easy to laugh at it now, but it was definitely stressful at the time. Luckily for me I had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off this week to get over the stresses of the previous week, but I did not stop for long.

Monday was my 25th Birthday so the day was filled with activities. The zoo, shopping, dinner, the lot! I was extremely tired by the end of the day and was ready to sleep for a  week. However, by Wednesday, it was my partner's birthday! So again, we spent the day doing lots of things. Walks down by Aldeburgh and lunch by the boats, it was a lovely day.

My days off were definitely filled with a variety of activities, but they were worth it. Both days were wonderful and it was great to get out and do different things.

It's also been nice to have a two day working week! I can already look forward to the weekend. And to top it all off, I'm now greeted with two four day weeks because of the bank holiday. Good timing!

Administration

As part of being a Trainee, not all jobs are that grand. Yes, most of the time you are carrying out the duties of a Solicitor under supervision but sometimes the dull tasks have to be done, and it's you that'll have to do them.

This week was one of those weeks. I've spent a lot of my time reading and spell checking documents created by third parties. Long documents, too.

As tiresome and tedious this may be, you have to look at the positives. I learnt a lot about the case and the current stage of the case by reading this document. So it did actually get me up to speed with everything.

As there are many court dates in litigious departments, as a Trainee you will also find yourself doing a lot of copying. Bundles need to be made, and these bundles can be HUGE. I'm talking numerous lever arch files, not just one! Furthermore, 99.9% chance you'll need to create at least around 4-5 copies of that bundle.

So there's a lot of standing around, organising and flipping through pieces of paper, but this is all part of being a Trainee Solicitor. I embrace the variety, and appreciate that I'm able to contribute towards a case in some form of way.

Some may say a photocopier is a Trainee's best friend!

Time for another Appraisal...

I'm pretty sure the further your get into your training contract the quicker it goes, I cannot believe I've just had my mid-seat appraisal in Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury. Those three months have gone so quick I'm not really sure how I feel about that to be honest!

So as this was a mid-seat appraisal the whole point of the meeting was to see how I was getting on, see what areas I need to improve and see if there is anything else that I need to get stuck into.

I was pleased to see that there were no concerns on my appraisal form, so that was a big relief. I was able to discuss with my team leader my aims for the next three months. We agreed that I would get stuck into more work that I haven't seen much of since I started, that way I get the full experience of a claims process.

Now that I have the relief of jumping over that hurdle, it's back to more Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury work.

Talk Talk Talk

Recently, a lecturer of mine who taught me on my LLB course invited me to give a presentation to the law students at the London School of Business and Management. I was delighted to be asked so of course, I obliged.

I wanted to speak to the students about how I obtained a training contr act, the options I had through my studies and also, the reality of how hard it can be.

As well as talking about myself, I thought that I would give the students the various options that are available for their specific circumstances. I also gave the students tips and advice on obtaining a contract, what to do in their applications and also in interview.

Doing this talk actually made me feel pretty proud of myself because I remember looking up to a Trainee who did a talk when I was at University, so now people were doing the same to me!

I hope that I was able to open the students eyes to the process of applying for training contracts and I hope they found the talk beneficial.

For me, not only was I happy to talk to people, but the talk also helped my confidence of speaking in front of crowds massively!

That's one challenge accomplished for this year, on to the next one!

New Committee, More Drinks

As we have now started a new year, this means that a new committee for the Suffolk and North Essex Junior Lawyers Division is now in place to represent all lawyers ranging from paralegals to those that are up to five years qualified.

The first social event for the SNEJLD involved drinks at a local bar in Suffolk. It was a great turnout as there were a lot of people there, including many faces that I had never seen before.

I was also able to catch up with people that I used to work with so I enjoyed speaking to them for a while and reminiscing about my days in conveyancing!

Not only were Solicitors in attendance, local barristers and legal recruiters also came to join us for drinks, so it was a nice variety of people and a good way to welcome in the new year with the committee for the SNEJLD.

Hopefully there will be lots of fun social events this year so that we can take time out of the office to get to know each other.

I'm hopeful that the next event will involve alcohol again.

Corporate Drafting

In the midst of my Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury experience, which includes bundles, instructions to experts, reviewing expert reports, telephone conferences and much more, the end of my week involved a trip to London.

I had to get the 7.38am train. Every time I need to go to London for work I always forget how early I need to wake up. I do not envy the commuters one bit, or feel sorry for them, it's self-inflicted!

I am now in the second stage of my Professional Skills Course so I was required to sit one of my elective subjects. This particular class was for Corporate Drafting.

The title itself is pretty self explanatory, I spent the day drafting parts of a Confidentiality Agreement and Option Agreement with other fellow Trainees. We also had the opportunity to answer and discuss questions on how we would draft certain clauses of other corporate documents.

It doesn't sound pretty interesting, however I actually enjoyed this class. It felt good to refresh my mind on an are of law that I was training in a year ago. I was worried that I wouldn't remember much but I think I did ok.

My next PSC class is in March and it is in relation to Personal Injury, so I should have good knowledge on this by then.

It was good to get out of the office for the day, but for now I think I'm happy with my usual 10 minute walk to work rather than a 1.5 hour train journey.

Quiz Time!!

Each year my firm puts on a quiz for all staff members and this year the questions were based on general knowledge, food, music, and films. I'm not the best at quizzes, but I thought that I would give it a go to see if I could surprise myself!

The firm provided dinner which was absolutely lovely and there was also lots of wine, the firm drank the place so dry that they had to go out and get some more!

The quiz was fun, but there were some questions that I had no idea about, I'm blaming it on my young age and lack of life experience...

Most of the answers I knew were in the music and film categories, general knowledge, not so much! In typical lawyer fashion, there were disputes over the types of answers that could be given to some of the questions, but the question master firmly put them in their place.

After an evening of great fun, unfortunately my team came last, but at least we were in a noticeable position!

As for this week, it's been very busy and I've been given a wide variety of tasks to carry out which has made things very interesting. I now have a long weekend by having Monday off, so it's time to relax!

Careers Fairs, Court, Counsel and Free Advice

Over the past few weeks my work has been rather varied, but that's all part of being a Trainee!

Within the past few weeks I had to attend another careers fair which was held at a local high school (it's like they never end!). There were students as young as year 8s there so my role was generally to explain what a lawyer was to see if they would be interested in this sort of career. Sometimes I do wonder whether children of this age are receiving too much pressure and are forced into choosing a career too soon. I'm pretty sure that when I was in year 8 I wasn't even thinking of my GCSE's let alone career paths and how to get there.

I also attended my first court hearing on a personal injury case. Admittedly it was only to discuss the directions and costs, so the content wasn't too juicy. However it was good to experience this part of the procedure for a personal injury claim. Hopefully I can attend more court hearings in the near future.

Finally, it was my time to volunteer at the local law advice centre again. This is where free 30 minute sessions are given to those in the local area who perhaps may not have access to legal services. I always enjoy these sessions as you have to think on your feet and you're genuinely helping people who need it. I feel like during these sessions I was able to advise the clients on their next steps and I could tell them where to go if they ever find that they are stuck in the same situation.

It is almost the end of January which shows that this month/year is already speeding through. Let's hope for another month of variety, hard work and good fun!

New Year, New Challenges

2017 is going to be all about setting myself challenges and having fun. Not only will I be qualifying this year, but I will be taking steps to move out of my parents house and actually give myself some responsibilities, it's about time!

Although I've set myself challenges, I'm going to take each month as it comes, identify what I need to do and see it through. I'm one of those people who sometimes thinks too much and then my head boils over.

It's back to reality for everyone, a minimum of 10 days off over Christmas and it seems as if it's absolutely flown by. It almost feels as if we never even had the time off! I think I did absolutely nothing over the Christmas period, except for watching all eight of the Harry Potter films, I felt the need to relive my childhood! My little nephew was born on 28 December so that was a lovely late Christmas present to have, and now I get to have all the cuddles in the world.

I hope that this year brings you peace and happiness, January is sometimes a quiet month for people so hopefully this can be a way to slowly ease yourself back into work!