Joe Billington - Day in the life

I wake up at around 7am and grab a coffee before I get ready for my commute to the office and I am out of the door by 8am. It takes me 40 minutes to get into the office and I have the radio on in the car on the way, as I like to listen to some music to get in the right frame of mind to start the day.

When I arrive in the office, I go straight to my desk and log on, grab another coffee and catch up with the other apprentices and members of my team. I then check capacity with my supervisor, who will assign me tasks to complete for the day.

I head back to my desk and browse my emails, checking if there is anything urgent for me to deal with. My supervisor asks me to put in a call to Chambers to speak with the clerk of the barrister who has been appointed for one of our cases to check availability for trial.

I prepare and file an Acknowledgment of Service for one of our matters before drafting some Letters of Acknowledgment for some claims that have just come in.

A Senior Associate asks me to assist her with some research for a response to a claim she is preparing. I hop online and peruse some interesting legal articles to try and get some answers for her. 

Sometimes I will pop out for a quick walk lunch at my desk and take a moment to myself to relax, or, I may have lunch with other apprentices.

After lunch, I have a call from the Partner in charge of my team, she has a mediation on the next day and requires some documents to be collated into a bundle. I start this before attending an interesting training session, in which I learn about the processes of claims handling and how this relates to the work that I carry out on a day-to-day basis.

I create a to-do-list for the following day. As I’m doing this, I take a call from another Associate, who would like me to attend a Court hearing with him the next day. I review the bundle of documents that has been prepared in advance of the hearing and make some notes.

And that’s another day gone by! I log off, say goodbye to my colleagues and head down the M5. I occasionally may go to the gym or otherwise go straight home, depending on how I’m feeling. Either way, I take time to unwind, which I think is really important at the end of a busy day.