Trainee Sena Guvercin tells us more about a typical working day during her seat in the Contentious Probate team ‘A day in the life’
I am currently a second-seat Trainee in the Contentious Probate team, based in the Exeter office. Although each day is very different, below is a preview of what can be expected in a day in the Contentious Probate team. 8:30 - 9:00 I plan my day ahead and organise anything that is urgent to be dealt with by my supervisor and to finish off any filing/administration tasks from the day before. Once this is all done, I head over to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee to drink whilst preparing my to-do list for the day. 9:00 - 9:45 : I start on an attendance note for a client meeting I attended the previous day. We will be meeting with the clients again in two weeks to 10:00 - 10:30 : We have our weekly team meetings on Wednesdays where we typically discuss our current work load and if anyone has the capacity to take on new jobs or assist each other. We also chat about new clients or any business development opportunities. provide a plan going forward so I want to get the note down while it is still fresh in my mind. 10:40 - 12:30 : After a quick catch up with my supervisor regarding one of our matters, I am asked to draft a Settlement Agreement.
I start off by reviewing a settlement agreement that was prepared for a similar matter and I use this as a precedent since this is the first time I am drafting one! 12:40 - 13:00 My supervisor calls me over to her desk to go over the draft agreement together. This is really helpful as I am able to see what I did correctly and where I could improve. I am glad to hear that it is a good first draft and after taking careful notes, I head to the kitchen to grab my lunch and prepare for the lunchtime session. 13:00 - 14:00 : There is a lunchtime training session on ‘Capital Markets’ for anyone who may be interested and since my next seat is going to be in the Corporate team, I think this is a great opportunity to gain some knowledge so I go along with a couple of other trainees. Michelmores hold frequent lunchtime training sessions on different areas of law and I find these to be very helpful for future seat choices and to get to know people across the Firm. 14:10 - 16:30 : I receive an email from one of our colleagues in the Tax, Trusts & Succession team who would like me to carry out an urgent research task for her. She is dealing with an estate where a car has been abandoned on the drive of the property. The
DVLA have confirmed the owner of the vehicle and my task is to investigate how we can remove the car from the drive and the procedure for doing so. I prepare a research report and schedule a call with her to discuss my findings. 16:30 - 17:00 : I finally find time to finish off the draft letter I had started on the previous day. After reviewing the matter WIP report, I set out the different payment options for the client: fixed fee or hourly rate. I send this off to the matter partner for review and approval before sending it out to the client. 17:00 - 17:30 : I am trying to stay on top of my training record so I dedicate 30 minutes at the end of each day to update this by noting down the different types of work I have experienced and the skills I have developed. This will be submitted to the Solicitors Regulation Authority when I apply to be admitted to the roll of solicitors. 17:30 - 18:00 : Since I am participating in the South West Coast Path Challenge in support of FearFree (our charity partner), I go for a short walk with a fellow trainee before heading home.
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