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Clyde & Co

4.6
  • 1,000 - 50,000 employees

Mitchell McMartin

6.30 AM

My alarm wakes me up. Like most days, I hit snooze for a while before getting out of bed and heading for the train station.

7.40 AM

As I live in the western suburbs it's an early train ride into Sydney. Most days I manage to coordinate the train ride with a couple of friends from university, so we catch up on the way to work. If we're not able to coordinate the train ride I usually read up on the day's news, both general news in the paper and industry news in the Australian Financial Review.

8.45 AM

I get into the office a bit early and have breakfast in the kitchen with a few colleagues while making a coffee to get the day started. We have a chat about what we're up to over the coming weekend.

9.00 AM

I start the work day off by looking through my inbox to check on any developments that have happened overnight on the matters I'm working on. I see that a client from Paris has sent through an email overnight requesting advice on their liability and quantum on an Australian based claim. Before I get a chance to have a think about the task, I'm off to Court for a directions hearing.

9.30 AM

One of the matters I'm working on has us monitoring developments in a related proceeding. There's a directions hearing on this morning at the NSW Supreme Court, so I'm up to Court to take notes on any developments in the matter. Directions hearing happen in a fast paced environment, so it’s a good experience as a recent graduate to get the opportunity to watch how they occur before I have to appear myself.

10.45 AM

With the directions hearing over I'm back at my desk to get stuck into some work. First up is drafting a short file note on the directions hearing. I follow this up with a draft update to the client on the developments and send this through to the Partner to review.

11.00 AM

While I've been at Court I've received an email notification of a development from one of the areas of law that I'm following for the team. I have a look and see that one of the bills that we've been tracking passed Parliament late last night. I update our development trackers and have a discussion about the development with one of the Senior Associates that I'm working with.

11.15 AM

Back to that email from overnight. I have a meeting with the Partner on the matter to discuss how we should approach the instructions. It's a fairly straightforward advice that the client has requested so the Partner asks me to have a go at the first draft of the advice for her to review. I spend the next hour reviewing the relevant documents and case law on the matter before putting together a first draft of the advice.

1.00 PM

While we never coordinate it in advance, myself and the other graduates end up having lunch in the upstairs kitchen together today. Today, two of the other graduates are having a debate on whether Federer or Djokovic is the greatest tennis player. With all sides agreeing to disagree, we grab a coffee from our usual spot around the corner before heading back to work.

2.00 PM

As I get back to my desk, one of my Senior Associates comes in to discuss a research task that she needs help with on a procedural point of law. It’s a fairly urgent task so I put something else that I planned on working on today that's due later in the week and get started on the research. Once it's finished, I put together a short research memo on the findings and discuss them with the Senior Associate.

4.00 PM

The Partner has had a chance to review the draft advice from earlier in the day. We have a chat to discuss the draft, thoughts on the advice and some of the Partner's amendments. While I'm in her office, she asks me to sit in on a launch call with another client for a seminar that she's giving in two weeks. After the call, we have a chat about the seminar and the presentation that she needs help preparing.

5.00 PM

There's a late development in one of the matters going to mediation tomorrow. The Special Counsel that I'm working with on the matter asks me to come in and discuss the developments. She gets me to help prepare a settlement agreement in case it's needed and to prepare a brief of key documents that she might need during the mediation.

6.30 PM

Outside of work, I chair the student committee of NSW Young Lawyers. We have our monthly meeting tonight to plan a number of intervarsity student events for the year, so I head up to the Law Society for the next couple of hours.

8.00 PM

As the meeting finishes early tonight, a few of us grab dinner at a nearby pub and catch up on what's been happening.