Ingrid Hu - Day in the life

I arrive and check my e-mails, as the Marine team deal with many global matters, items often come in overnight. I review my tasks for the day.

I have a morning video call with Counsel and our appointed experts for an arbitration we are currently preparing expert reports for. I attend the call and prepare a note to report back to the Partner on the matter.

We have received a lengthy advice from Counsel on a matter I am assisting with. I review the advice to prepare a summary to be sent to clients.

There is a (virtual) lunchtime seminar on limitation that Kennedys is hosting. Kennedys hold frequent lunchtime seminars on different areas of law, these are both interesting and helpful to keep an eye on what is going on in other industries. Pre-COVID-19, these seminars were held in-house and a good opportunity to catch up with other people across the firm.

I have been asked to draft a witness statement, the matter is very technical and it takes a while to review the correspondence and documents to ensure that I understand the issues.

I take a break and head to the kitchen for tea and a chat with whoever has congregated there at the same time. Sometimes I get to my desk before I finish my tea, otherwise I make myself another before heading back.

We have received urgent instructions to issue a claim for which limitation expires today. I review the documents we have received and draft a claim form for the Partner’s review, I also prepare an N510 to allow us to serve the claim out of jurisdiction.

We receive comments on a draft settlement agreement that we have been negotiating. The proposed amendments are unfavourable to our client, and I report to clients. We arrange for a call the next day to consider our response.

We have received a query from a client on service of documents in Thailand. I reach out to a lawyer in our Bangkok office for clarification – one of the many benefits of being part of a global law firm with offices around the world.

My supervisor asks me to prepare instructions to counsel to draft claim submissions for an arbitration we have just commenced. We discuss what needs to be in it and I make a start. At the end of the day, I ensure my time recording is up to date and create a fresh list of tasks for the next day.