6.15 AM
Despite easily being able to sleep for another hour or two, my alarm rudely interrupts me and gets me out of bed. I roll out of bed and get into some running gear to start my day.
I chuck in the AirPods and put on one of my favourite podcasts, the Grade Cricketer, and (slowly) charge out of the house for a jog around the streets of Collingwood and around the MCG. Given that the flow of our days can be a little unpredictable as a junior, I find that the morning is the best time of day for a bit of exercise before jumping into my work.
7.30 AM
I've arrived home from my run, had a shower and a spot of breakfast. Because I am going into the office today, I text one of the lawyers in the team from my previous rotation, Commercial Disputes, to see if she is also going into the office. She lives nearby, so when we are both going in we walk to the office together.
Dani is going into the office today, so we meet up at 7.30 am and set out for the 30-minute walk. We chat about our weekend plans and the developments in some of the more interesting files that I worked on during my rotation.
8.15 AM
After walking in, I am met by a couple of my fellow graduates with who I get a morning coffee each day. We trundle down to Bonnie (a great local coffee spot) and, because it's my turn today, I order our three coffees. We discuss how our days are looking, and what our thoughts are on which team we may eventually settle in - given it is time for us to decide which area we would like to work in going forwards!
8.45 AM
I'm at my desk now and do a quick run through my inbox and Teams messages to see what shape my day will take. I flag anything that will require some work today, and update my to-do list.
It looks like today should be a fun one. I am currently in the Workplace Relations & Safety team, which has a really broad range of work and plenty of court and Fair Work Commission hearings going on at all times. I have been invited to attend an unfair dismissal hearing in the FWC this afternoon and will help out with the submissions for another one that runs next week.
Otherwise, my (busy!) day consists of:
10.30 AM
I have called our new pro bono client and collected some further information in relation to his dismissal. Unfortunately, because he did not work for the required period to pass the claim threshold, I have to advise him that his only recourse will be obtaining Commonwealth support while seeking new employment. I give the Senior Associate who is supervising the file a call to recap and see what other information I could have gathered, which is a fantastic chance to debrief.
I have also made a start on the chronology of events, which basically entails going through the court documents that have been lodged and any correspondence with the client, to track the entire history of their relationship with the organisation.
12.30 PM
We are each assigned a mentor at the start of our graduate year to guide us into full-time work and be a constant point of contact outside of our rotations (which change every three months). I chose my mentor, Gregg, because he was someone I really enjoyed working with throughout my clerkship in the Corporate team. Gregg has asked me if I want to have a call with him, so we chat for about 20 minutes about how my current rotation is going. I find these chats particularly helpful because Gregg has gotten to know me quite well over the year.
After our coffee, I heat up my leftover stir fry for lunch and sit down in the lunch area of our new office with three or four other graduates, and a few other lawyers who come in and out. The stir fry isn't much good (I cooked it)!
2.00 PM
I'm back at my desk and ready to attend our unfair dismissal hearing. I log on to the court-run Teams call, and am pleasantly surprised to find that the issue in today's hearing, an out-of-time jurisdictional hearing where the applicant filed outside of the time window available, is the same issue I am writing submissions on later!
The hearing goes for about two hours and includes one of our partners cross-examining the applicant, which is a great experience to watch and ask her about afterwards. I send through my notes at the end of the hearing and get going on my own submissions.
4.00 PM
I am able to find our submissions from today's hearing on the system, which is great because it gives a perfect template for the ones I am drafting. The drafting takes an hour and a bit, and I send it off to one of our senior associates before jumping on a call with my buddy and supervisor.
In this call, we chat about what work I am currently doing, and what other parts of the team I should be exposed to while I am still in the first half of my rotation. We decide that because I have not done any work in workplace investigations or OH&S yet, I should reach out to the specialists in our team to see what I can get involved in.
5.30 PM
I'm beginning to wind up my day, with my last piece of work being the bulletin update for one of our international clients. Luckily, our team does these quite often for several clients, so I am able to pull up a few precedents and work off those. I then do a broad search through our employment law databases to see if I am missing anything, and what developments might be specifically relevant to this client.
By the time that I finish up, it is about 6.15 pm and I am keen to get home! I hop on the tram and listen to some music to cap off the day.
6.30 PM
I recently moved out to a share house with three of my best friends in Collingwood, so when I arrive home we are all keen to catch up and cook dinner together. We cook up some pasta and get upstairs for MAFS and a glass of red wine. We see if there is any sport on that we can watch and talk a bit of rubbish. I call my girlfriend to see how her day was, and arrange to have dinner together tomorrow!
10.00 PM
I wind up the day by hopping into bed and reading for half an hour before going to sleep. It's a great way to cap off the day before doing it all again tomorrow!