James Hill

6.00 AM

This is definitely not my usual wake-up.  Regularly, I try to 'wake up' around 7:00 am – and by wake up, I mean hit snooze on my alarm about 3 times before I actually get up at 7:30 am.  I have never really considered myself a morning person so I usually manage to grab my overnight oats for breakfast and be at the train station by 8:00 am.  However, today I popped out to the driving range with a colleague in my team (Construction and Infrastructure) before work to hit some balls.  Afterwards, I drove to the train station to start my usual routine.

8.20 AM

Before we really get into the nitty-gritty of things, I usually pop down to the local coffee shop down the road (Spencer Lane – unashamed plug) to pick up a latte to start the day with a couple of colleagues from my team. 

8.30 AM

After making my way up to level 28, and briefly stopping to enjoy to view, I start my day by checking my emails.  Today I've received a couple of emails from the Partner in my team asking me to finalise a document I was drafting from the day before to distribute to the client by 10:00 am.  I also check the task list next to my computer so I don't lose track of anything I'm supposed to be doing.  After finalising the document as requested, I immediately have to jump back into the defence I've been drafting for another client.  Often I find myself having to interrupt large tasks like drafting pleadings with smaller jobs that have a bit more time pressure.

9.00 AM

I received a call from the Partner in my team to come into his office and help run through some responses we have drafted for a client to be settled.  There was a bit of time pressure on this one so we had to work quickly through the documents I had drafted the evening before.  We told the client we would get them our mark-ups to their responses within the hour so I was pretty happy I had stayed back a bit yesterday to finish it off.

9.45 AM

We managed to send off the email to the client with the documents before the one-hour deadline.  The Partner in my team thanked me and even gave me a 'good stuff mate' for the work I'd put in from the evening before and this morning to make the tight deadline. 

12.30 PM

In my team, there are a few of us who head to the gym just around the corner during our lunchtime break.  Believe it or not, I actually manage to squeeze in a full workout, shower and lunch during my hour break and am back at my desk by 1:30 pm.  The end-of-trip facilities at the building are great and I find this helps me to split up the day to feel refreshed for the afternoon.

1.30 PM

I return back to my 'pod' which is the space where I work with 3 other junior solicitors.  We are all in the same team and whilst this may not sound as attractive as an individual office space, I actually much prefer the social side of it, and being able to simply turn around and ask others their thoughts on a point which I might be working on.  I did a bit more work on the defence I have been drafting for the past few days before sending it off to the Special Counsel in our team to review and give me some feedback – I was a bit nervous about sending it off because it is one of the first defences I've ever drafted, but I usually try to send things off as soon as I feel like I have done as much as I am sure of, as the more senior members of the team can often explain any gaps in my knowledge much faster than I can figure them out.

2.00 PM

During the afternoon, we had a small internal meeting about a matter I've been working on which is going to trial later this year.  Because of the size of litigated matters in construction, there are almost always a few people in the team working on the matter at a given time.  The idea of these meetings is to keep everyone up to speed with the tasks that are needed to be finished, deadlines and who is assigned to each task.  In this meeting, I've been assigned the task of preparing our lay evidence for trial (which is all the evidence from our client's witnesses to be drafted into affidavits and witness summaries) for the duration of the dispute.

2.30 PM

After the meeting, I sent a follow-up email to the attendees which outlines the points we've discussed, who has been assigned each task and any key dates.  There is usually a lot going on in the meetings so it is easy to lose track of what may have been saying.  Sending out an email like this also allows anyone to respond with corrections or if they have an issue with their task.

2.45 PM

I made a start on the lay evidence review by having a look at the chronologies we already have on the file.  From there I've started putting together the relevant documents we have received from the client and checking for any gaps in the history of the matter.  Using these documents I started setting out who authored the document and what each document refers to, to be able to create a full picture of our case.  It ended up being a bit of detective work because the events which gave rise to the dispute happened a few years ago, and often what is in dispute are the oral directions that allegedly occurred during that time.

4.30 PM

As a member of the Thomson Geer social club, I find time to help out plan events and organise the events on the day.  For the past 4 weeks, the firm has been hosting an 'Election Coverage' evening on Fridays.  I sent out an email today to the Brisbane office to remind everyone about the drinks which would be provided and the start time.  I also popped out of the office to grab some drinks for the firm and set them up in the meeting room.

5.00 PM

I attended the Election Coverage function which has been a great event at the end of the week we have on at the moment to decompress from the week.  Thankfully it's a Friday afternoon and even though each day at work is interesting, I always look forward to having a break and seeing my family and friends. 

5.30 PM

Today was a quieter day for me in terms of my workload, but earlier in the week I needed to stay back to finalise some outstanding tasks.  At the end of each week, I always make sure to review my time entries to not only make sure I am imposing good practices on myself but to ensure I can be happy with the effort I've put in this week.