By trainee Eve Jenkins
As a second year trainee who has completed two of my six seats in the Dispute Resolution department, this blog is intended to provide an idea of the type of work a trainee in the department may undertake.
9:00am: Log on to my computer from my working-from-home set up, catch up on emails after the extended New Year's break and check my to-do list left from the previous week.
9:30am: Review search results from recent legal sources and news relating to artificial intelligence, and update a resources section on a sector specific working group channel to include relevant developments which may be of interest to others working within the firm.
10:00am: Begin preparing to attend a virtual court hearing after having spent the final few days of 2020 creating court bundles, serving skeleton arguments and drafting cost statements for the case in question.
10:30am: Attend Cardiff County Court by way of video conference during which the case was unfortunately adjourned for a further two weeks' time.
11:00am: Draft emails to two disclosure providers to obtain a quote for their services, which would allow us to hold all of a client's electronic material on a platform where we can easily run searches and review the material for anything relevant to our client's matter.
11:30am: Attend a virtual training session with the junior members of the department on the Civil Procedure Rules. The department runs regular training sessions both for junior members and the whole of the Dispute Resolution department.
12:00pm: Video call with my supervisor from the department to discuss work I currently have on for the day.
12:15pm: Call to the Central Registry of Winding up Petitions on behalf of our client to enquire whether a winding up petition has been made against our client.
1:00pm: Take a walk around my local area and eat lunch.
2:00pm: Video call with a member from the department instructing me to conduct some research on a question relating to trust law.
4:00pm: Writing up my research into a note and emailing the work back. Call with the team member to summarise my findings.
4:15pm: Proofing and adding to an allegation table which is a breakdown of all allegations being made within a particulars of claim complete with the corresponding responses to each allegation as addressed within a defence.
6:00pm: Write a to-do list of tasks to be completed the next day.