Rachel McCulloch

5.30 AM

My alarm goes off and I wake my 11 year old daughter up to get ready for a walk.  We drive around the corner to my parent’s house to meet my mum for a morning walk around the neighborhood.  We walk around a few blocks, chat and make our way back to mum/grandma’s. 

6.45 AM

We arrive home to my fiancé who is now awake and has put the coffee on (this is why I am marrying him).  I have a shower and crawl back into bed with my fiancé, daughter and husky while I have my coffee.   We all get up and get ready for our day. 

7.55 AM

I leave the house with another coffee and drop my daughter at her school which is a small detour on my way to work.  I drive to my car park which is on the 9th level of a tall building, I walk down (what feels like) millions of stairs, wait about 10 minutes for the pedestrian light to go green, and wander over to our office.  

8.20 AM

After putting my lunch in the fridge, I arrive at my office.  I open my emails to see if anything urgent has popped up overnight, and then start looking at my task list for the day.  My first task today is to prepare letters and paperwork for the final distributions of an estate where we are acting for the executor’s.   One of them is receiving a house as part of their entitlement so I also prepare the relevant Titles Office forms for transmission.  

9.30 AM

Our first client is here for an Estate Planning meeting.  Because I have only had my practicing certificate for six months, I often shadow my workgroup partner, an accredited succession law specialist, in our client meetings.  Our client requires a simple Will, Enduring Power of Attorney, Advance Health Directive and a Superannuation Binding Death Benefit Nomination. I will set a task to draft these documents after the appointment.  

10.30 AM

I save my file note to the client’s file and set a task for drafting documents.  I open my emails and see a message from Reception that the Townsville Supreme Court Registry has phoned to say there are two Grants of Probate awaiting collection.  I had only just attended the court yesterday to file these applications, so this was a very quick turnaround. 

10.45 AM

I let my team (Wills & Estates) know that I am heading over to the court to collect the Grants and make my way over.  The Court is only one street behind our building and we have an entrance through the back of our building that takes us out to that street.   Out the front of court, I run into my previous employer, who is on his way to an appointment.  We stopped to have a quick chat and mention that we will both see each other this Friday night at the Townsville District Law Association’s Trivia Night.  I am attending that with 9 other solicitors from my firm.    I then head into the Registry to collect the Grants and have a quick chat to the staff at the Registry. 

11.00 AM

When I arrive back at my desk, I have a few internal emails to respond to and a phone message to call someone back from a Bank.  I set reminders to action these and continue with my other tasks. 

12.45 PM

I quickly heat up my lunch before my Mentoring Meeting at 1pm.  Our firm runs an in-house mentoring program where junior solicitors meet monthly with a Partner who acts as their mentor and go through a strategic agenda which assists us with our personal and professional development.   

2.00 PM

An existing client is here for a 2pm appointment to provide us with their final instructions for their estate planning.  This one is more complex than our 9.30pm meeting and I listen carefully and take thorough notes as my Workgroup Partner provides advice.  

3.00 PM

I have a quick chat to my Workgroup Partner about the next steps in this matter and she gives me a list of tasks to action.  I then go and add those tasks to the client file and continue working through today’s task list.  At the moment I am chasing up clients who are the executors of an estate and the tax agent requires further information to finalise the estate’s tax. 

3.30 PM

I am leaving early today as I have another mentoring meeting – this time it’s the Townsville Business Women’s Circle Mentoring Circle Group.   I attend these sessions monthly with 7 other women from different careers paths.  We share the same mentor and take turns at sharing our life/work experiences and struggles and offer each other advice and support.  

5.15 PM

I leave the mentoring circle and head to the Strand to attend a marketing function at the Rockpool Pavilion – the Townsville Business Women’s Circle Bursary Awards Cocktail night. Here I am meeting up with 3 other junior lawyers from my firm to network and connect with other women from our community.

7.30 PM

I am on my way to pick my daughter up from my parent’s house, who have just taken her to band practice. We then head home to relax and get ready for another day.