My love / not so love relationship with London

"Hate" is much too strong a word about this great city. London is such a unique, vibrant, diverse and bustling city and I've really enjoyed living here the past 9 months. So I thought a little summary about what it's like to live in London might be timely - the goods and the bads!

The walk to work

So some of you know that I live in East London, which is walking distance to work. After hitting my snooze button 4-5 times I'm usually running late, so I always leave the house feeling a little flustered. In an attempt to regroup and get a little zen before arriving at the office, I always take a deep breath in to relax...

...only it's London and there is tonnes of traffic next to me and the air doesn't smell so good. And that's on a good day. Every few times I take that deep inhalation, I happen to be walking past one of those red old-timey phone booths that someone has taken a piss in. Yep, I take a big gulp of piss air.

On the other hand, walking to work can be great BECAUSE of the traffic. Back home, one of my favourite things to do was to sing in the car. No-one could hear me (although my family know a highly embarrassing story that proves that's not always true) and so I could sing to my heart's content. Now that I have no car, I live with house mates and in a high density area, I don't have anywhere private to sing. The unexpectedly good thing about noisy London traffic is that I can sing on my way to work and no-one can hear me!! It puts me in such a good mood:

The weather

Well you all know what I'm going to say here, though I really didn't expect it to be this bad! Because my room is so small, I only have room for two season's worth of clothing at a time, which I alternate. In June I optimistically swapped over to my "summer clothes" in anticipation for some much needed Vitamin D and warm weather. I can tell you that NOT ONCE did I wear any of my summer dresses, let alone shorts - I mean what was I thinking by bringing out my shorts? This is a better description of England in summer:

On the plus side, the UK does the holiday season really well. When I was studying here last year, I was amazed that Bridget Jones Christmas jumpers are actually a thing - it wasn't exaggerated in the movie. And this man proves that you can still be handsome in a ridiculous Christmas jumper.

Another great thing about winter in London are the ice rinks - there is one opening up right near my work! I started to think about how my life will be infinitely better now that I have my own personal ice rink to go to after work. But then I remembered that I work in a law firm and that I'll most likely be inside watching the holiday goers laugh their stupid laughs and have their stupid fun and I'll longingly gaze at them wishing I could have some of that:

The tube

I can't post an update about London without mentioning all that is weird and wonderful about the tube. You see some really great characters there. My favourite was definitely a guy in his late-20s, with some serious dreads, who brought his own old school boom-box on the tube at around 11.30pm. Everyone was really lifted by the music and were smiling embarrassed smiles. It didn't quite have the effect that The Lonely Island said it would, but it came close!

On the other hand, there's also so much potential for awkwardness on the tube. There's the squishing onto the carriage during peak hour, not knowing where to hold onto, you take so long to make a decision that the tube starts moving and you jolt and instantly grab onto the nearest thing which of course happens to be another person's hand. 

That's nothing though compared to my experience last weekend. I was sitting on an almost empty tube and I had forgotten to bring something to read. I glanced over at the guy reading his newspaper next to me, and was intrigued by a headline, so I leaned a little closer and kept reading. I might have leaned in a bit more. He realised that someone was breathing heavily right into his ear, turned around slowly and we locked eyes:

It was horrible. 

The other thing that I can never seem to get right is to remember to take out my oyster card when I'm about to get to the ticket barriers. Stepping off the tube I always elect to walk up the escalators (it of course counts as exercise for the day) and I walk up those steps focusing on not appearing too puffed and sweaty and like I'm regretting my decision. As soon as I reach the top, I reach casually for my oyster card before I realise that I have no idea where it is:

I end up having to awkwardly shuffle out of everyone's way before I can have a proper dig through my handbag. 

London's little mysteries

There are still some things that I want/ need to figure out before I leave this city. At the top of my list is to find out the identity and purpose of this one man who works in my area. On my way to work I sometimes choose the quieter option down narrow, hip Old Street lane ways. When I do, I pass by a particular window and this same white-haired man is sitting right in the window typing on a laptop. Who is he? And why is he working at 7.30am in the morning? And why does he never look up - his location is perfect for people watching and yet he is so dedicated to his computer. Yesterday was a revelation to me, because I SAW SOMEONE ELSE IN THE ROOM. I will get to the bottom of this if I have to knock on his window myself.

An Actual Update

Instead of creating another list today, I thought I'd provide you with an actual update on all the goings on in the past few weeks. Though I'm still including gifs because they're my favourite part of this process.

New seat

So as I mentioned, I moved into my second seat which is part of Real Estate. I am having such a great time, enjoying the added responsibility and client contact that's usual for trainees in Real Estate compared to the more hierarchical litigation. I do miss the precision of litigation though - exacting standards of organisation and drafting that would be inefficient in Real Estate and Corporate where you're juggling tens of matters at the same time and have to quickly get things off your desk. These groups have a different balance going for them, and while it works just as well, it's a new style to get used to.

When I first got to my new group, I was exhausted. What a stupid idea not to take a holiday in the last week of my last seat! While it's true that everything was exciting and new, for the first few days it was hard to shake off this feeling:

Once that feeling wore off, I concentrated on making a good impression from the outset. I've learned that if you start off appearing nervous, it's hard to shake off that first impression. So I went in with guns blazing, set up all my electronic and hard copy folders like a pro, put my game face on and agreed to take on work, hoping that I would figure out what the hell I was doing after that person had left. I think I totally nailed it:

Another thing that I'm loving in this new seat is how down to earth the partners are. I was working at my desk, when one of the partners came in to ask my supervisor if she would come with him to the partners' lunch. They spent the next 10-15 minutes working out a social strategy for how to approach the lunch - where they would stand, who they would aim to talk to, what their back-up plans were. It was so funny, exactly like the strategy sessions in high school about how to approach a school dance. Except this partners' lunch was provided every day. I couldn't help laughing, or 'snickering' as one of the partners called it, haha! It was refreshing to see them being completely normal. Like that time my supervisor had Doritos for breakfast the other day:

New friends

In my advocacy course, I made friends with a lovely English girl/woman (what do you call females in their mid-twenties?) from another city law firm. Making friends with people from other law firms has made me realise that we're all pretty much the same! I tell this story, only because it gave rise to one of the funniest examples of cultural difference I've experienced so far.

We had a lovely time getting to know each other on a rare London sunny day, and my friend was telling me about her days boarding in an English girls' school. She said that at times she didn't enjoy it because "some of the girls were..."

Me: "BITCHES"

Her: "...not my cup of tea".

Haha!

The gym

Just an update to say that all the progress I was making at the fancy gym near work collapsed in the seat transition. I guess finishing up all my work, providing the hand over, packing up my stuff, then unpacking my stuff at my new desk and starting my new work, all took their toll on my fitness. When I finally got back into my routine after a couple of weeks, I felt like this:

Ireland

Lastly, I got to go on a Graduate Recruitment trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland and speak to university students about our firm. I really enjoyed it, and not just because it was a free trip with work where we got to hang out and have drinks. I think I enjoyed it most because I could talk genuinely about liking my firm. I spoke to some of the representatives from other firms at the careers fair, and to be honest they seemed a little scripted. It was a strange feeling being on the other side though, I can say that! 

I loved Dublin and Belfast, and had a great time getting to know the other people on the trip. I was not expecting the late night drinking though, and had to fly back on Friday morning and go to work with only 3 hours sleep. Totally worth it.

Time Recording - AWK.AWK.03

This is the third instalment of our popular time recording How-To series:  Awkward Encounters. You've just completed your first seat, and for the last month have been adulting like a real lawyer. Conversations at drinks with trainee friends focus less and less on the embarrassing moments of the past week, and you are able to move onto other topics.

But you move to your next group. You've passed Stage 1 (Excitement) and have potentially progressed onto Stage 2 (Overwhelmed) (see earlier post). Suddenly, you're finding the need to pull out that old AWK.AWK timer, which you thought you'd left behind. This post aims to provide some further examples with which to help you decide if your second seat encounters are awkward enough to constitute recordable time.

Slips of the tongue

You're Australian and are used to saying "Your Honour" when faced with Court scenarios. You attend an advocacy course where you learn that when addressing a High Court judge in the UK, you must use "My Lord/My Lady" or "Your Lordship/ Your Ladyship". Your brain somehow chooses to go with "Your Honship". The minutes of embarrassed silence following, not once, but every time you accidentally say "Your Honship" is accountable time.

Getting a little too comfortable

You've been successfully navigating the banter at work, making light jokes and having a laugh. You're feeling pretty confident. You walk into an associate's office and strike up a conversation. He mentions that he's feeling a bit overheated and asks if you feel it too. You reply "the whole office is hot, you're not just radiating heat due to your good looks". The long, suffering silence that follows is all recordable under AWK.AWK.03.

The Blank

A female Senior Associate in the group, who you think is an absolute boss, comes into your office to talk to your supervisor. To your surprise and delight, she compliments the salad you're eating and asks you what's in it. She has never spoken to you before, and in your internal excitement you temporarily lose the ability to recall vegetable names. You stare forward for 15-20 seconds in complete silence, only realising later that your Resting Bitch Face was on full strength as you tried desperately to remember the word for "grated carrot". 

The 15-20 seconds of blank stare, plus the minutes of agony that follow after the Senior Associate smiles awkwardly and turns to your supervisor before you can get out a single word, are all recordable under this time code. 

What's said in the office, stays in the office

You and your supervisor get along great. As an Australian, you inevitably get into a debate about the word "thong". A debate ensues where you allege that if you search Google for "thongs", pictures of flip flops will come up. He thinks you're wrong, asserting that pictures of G-strings will be the only result. So you put it to the test, searching for "thongs" on Google images. Of course it's at this moment that a Partner walks into your office, staring horrified at your computer screen which shows, mostly, bottoms of all shapes and sizes. She recovers, and speaks to your supervisor without mentioning anything. You quickly close the screen. 

She leaves, and you say to your supervisor that the result will be different if you search google.com.au. So you type in that search and bring up another array of bottoms and cracks, with a couple of flip flops. The Partner, forgetting something, walks back into the room. If your supervisor and the Partner look like this, then it's all accountable:

Out of arms' way

You've had a rough week and have just moved into your new seat....literally, you're sitting in your new seat and trying to adapt it to your new desk. You try to adjust the armrest but it won't move. You tug at it gently, but it still won't budge. You try to pull it harder, and suddenly the arm flings off the chair and flies across the room. Your brand new supervisor, of course, chooses that moment to walk in and sees the arm of your chair lying on the floor. He asks if everything's ok, you want to say:

What's in a name?

You go to ask an associate a question over email, but accidentally send the email to a client instead. You feel mildly embarrassed - this in itself will not be recordable under the AWK.AWK code. On the other hand, the client receives your email with good humour and tells you a story. When they were an associate, they wanted to ask their PA to do some printing ahead of a meeting, but sent the email to the Financial Director of a FTSE 100 company who happened to have the same name. Safe to say the FD apparently did not bring the print outs to the meeting. This would be recordable under AWK.AWK.03.

Inappropriate hugging

This example seems so obvious it need not be stated, but unfortunately, mistakes do happen. You've been in your new seat for three weeks now and find the group to be lovely. This gives you a false sense of security. One day, you find yourself creeping towards 6pm with 3 tasks all due that night. Your team are also urging you to go to the team drinks. You go to the drinks, intending to only go for an hour and then head back to your desk, but instead you get tipsy off one glass of wine - this regularly happens at law firm drinks where dinner consists of a handful of crisps. An associate in your group very kindly speaks to the Partner for you and gets the deadline moved to Monday, clearing you to stay at the drinks. You are overjoyed, wrap your arms around her and give her a hug. 

Do not hug your colleagues. They are your colleagues. 

While you were too tipsy to notice the awkwardness at the time, you may retrospectively record such time once awkwardness is realised.

The five stages of trainee

I have officially finished my first seat! Six months of general litigation have come and gone, and I'm one quarter through my training contract. I'll get the (meagre) status boost of being a "second seater" and should be able to hit the ground running more so than in my first seat. That means no time needed to get used to our electronic filing system, working out how to send something to the printing department or order dinner from the canteen.

It will be a step back though. Someone suggested to me that we'll lose around 30% of our capability when we move seats. That's very specific (I'll let you know if it's closer to 35%) but I think I understand what he meant. There will be a new culture to get used to, new banter, new personalities, a new subject-matter of work (I'll actually be wikipedia-ing real estate law today!), new research tools and new lingo. 

We have "handover" coffees or drinks with the trainee that we're taking over from, where they go through the background of the group's work, the personalities in the group, the tasks that you'll be responsible for and any sneaky tips. After my handover, I'm excited to be starting in my new group, but I have a feeling I'll need to quickly learn all the acronyms! I think a glossary of terms should be compulsory in all groups. 

In honour of finishing my first seat, I thought I'd write about the Five Stages of Trainee - these are both a reflection of my first seat and my predictions for the next three.

1. Excitement

The first few weeks start off with a hopeful sense of adventure. This is a clean slate, your first day at school. You have so much ahead of you and could really love this group - I mean, maybe this is where you'll qualify?? 

You start by doing all the right things. Keeping your desk tidy, coming into work early and plastering an enthusiastic smile to your face. After all, first impressions last and you want to be taken seriously:

2. Overwhelmed

Excitement gives way to a mild panic. So many new terms and processes to get used to, you feel slower than usual. One thing I've noticed is that there's a "shared knowledge" within each group. This is an undercurrent of terms and concepts that are so obvious to everyone that they occasionally forget what it's like to not know these things. 

One example from early in my first seat was at the beginning of the bundling process, where I found a new document that had to be inserted into our already-printed and paginated trial folders. I had no idea what to do in those circumstances, but was told that it was "common sense" to think of paginating the document as an "A" and "B". E.g. if the document went between page 150 and page 151, then you would write the page numbers as 150A, 150B, 150C etc. Um NO!?!? Who would think of that??

Of course now it seems obvious, but at the time, it was only common sense in the context of the shared knowledge of the group, which at the beginning a trainee doesn't possess.

You start doubting the skills that you know you have and feel like you're a step behind everyone else:

I can already tell that Stage 2 will be less and less pronounced as you go forward. This is because while you'll come across things you've never done before, they will either be similar to something you have done before OR you'll be able to tap into the building blocks of skills that you now have and you'll have a better chance of working it out yourself. 

3. Perseverance

You keep at it, working hard and learning from those around you. 

4. Small wins

You start having more and more small wins. You can probably look back at some of my old posts for examples!! 

Maybe you're doing a research task and you find a case that's directly on point:

Maybe it's something as simple as being thrown into a stressful situation, and managing to keep your cool:

In any case, you feel like you're getting the hang of it, you've made back that 30% that you lost coming into this new group (haha!). I have to say, these small wins are such a great feeling when they happen.

5. Acceptance

Acceptance seems to be the final stage of trainee-dom. Maybe you've had an overall excellent experience and you're feeling confident and happy working with this group of people: you feel a little bit sad at the thought of leaving them. Maybe instead, acceptance is more an acknowledgement that you'll never quite fit in there, whether it's because of the culture of the group or because you didn't enjoy the work quite as much as you thought you might. 

Overall though, I think it's an acceptance of yourself. You start figuring out the type of lawyer that you want to, and are going to, be and no-one can really change that about you. I know I finished my first seat with a little bit of this:

Good luck to all my friends starting their new seats on Monday!!!

The unwritten rules of working in a law firm

This past month has been very quiet. August seems to be the month that everyone in my group goes on holiday, and one of the PAs aptly said "it's like a morgue in here!" I quite like having the office to myself, it means I can listen to my iPod while I work (shock horror). Of course what happened is that the NQ tried to knock and get my attention, but all I saw was this shadow appear suddenly by my side and I jolted and jumped out of my seat, gasping loudly and choked "AASRKJWRJHHSFGG!!" So embarrassing. Lesson learnt.

Which brings me to this week's topic: the unwritten rules for working in a law firm. These are particular to my group and what I've learned slowly over time, so some of these might not apply when I move to my next seat in September. 

1. 'Business casual'

For me this was the realisation that people in my group dress down - 'business casual' is the norm. This means you can hilariously spot a vacation schemer a mile away, as the awkward young person in formal attire.

Women have a larger range of clothing options (men just wear suits with no tie), which meant it took me a good few weeks before I'd gotten the hang of it. I wish that I'd had Cher's clothes matching program from Clueless...

2. Peek through a person's window before you walk into their office

The first time I walked into a partner's office to find that he was in the middle of a meeting:

3. Knowing the difference between an accusation and a question

I think I've finally figured out when a question is accusatory (and I need to justify) and when it's merely an information gathering exercise. For example, the question "Why did you do this?" could go both ways but I've found that in the vast majority of cases, the questions that sound like accusations are simply questions - the person just wants to know my reason for making that choice. Lawyers are just very direct people (except when they're not). 

4. When you're asked for your opinion, go for it!

I've already mentioned how, as a trainee, it can feel like you're at the bottom of the food chain. You might therefore become stunned if you're asked "What's your opinion on this?" But I've learned that in these scenarios, you have to go for it. Take a breath, think about what and why, and tell them in your most grown-up voice. You've been given permission to shine, so just don't do this:

5. Safe topics for small talk

I think I've mentioned this story before, but once I asked a personal question to a Senior Associate (SA) and they were taken aback and just said "TMI!" Hard to tell whether this is a group thing, a British thing, or a general "work etiquette" thing, but I've learned that the following topics are the only ones that get bantered around and are therefore safe for use:

• what you will do, or have done, on the weekend
• what you will do, or have done, on your holiday
• by extension, travel
• films or theatre
• food
• that's it

Situations that should have rules: to figure out in my next seat

I would love a handbook on some other situations that have cropped up where either I or my friends have had no idea what to do.

1. What if you think your supervisor is wrong?

I have not yet come across a foolhardy rule for this. A friend of mine who is an SA says that they hate when a trainee tells them they're wrong, as though the trainee knows more about it than they do. On the other hand, I know my supervisor appreciates when I point things out, and he'll just tell me if it's not an issue. 

Another friend just has no clue with her supervisor - if she points it out, they could get annoyed at her, but if she doesn't and it turns out to be an issue, they could get annoyed that she didn't say anything. Feels a bit like this:

At this point, my best guess is that you should point out what you think is an error (in case it does become an issue down the track) and don't do it in either an arrogant or in a meek way - somewhere in between is best. Sigh. To be confirmed in my next seat.

2. To hot food, or not to hot food?

My house mate helpfully suggested another situation where we'd like a nice clear rule in place. Some supervisors are fine with bringing hot food into the office, while others can't stand it. If they start doing this, I'd take it outside:

3. When do you CC?

The last, and most important, situation in need of guidance is "when do you copy in somebody to an email?" On one hand, you don't want to copy in your supervisor to a routine email on logistics with lots of mundane back and forth on the cost of hiring a printer. But you might want to copy them in on the first email, to keep them abreast of when you're contacting someone outside the firm. The miscommunication that happens when someone isn't copied in can be very awkward and confusing, but if you copy in someone too often it clogs their inbox. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO???

I hope this post has been somewhat helpful - I feel that in any workplace or social gathering, we need to read between the lines and work out the unwritten rules. I'm looking forward to the day these feel natural, and maybe one day, laying down some rules myself - hot food welcome!

London Legalspeak: Counsel Edition

Hi everyone!  

So last post I mentioned that I was recently able to attend a trial. For 5 out of the 6 months of my litigation seat, I've been working on one single case, which culminated in this trial. While now in August I'll be hoping for a bit more variety, the great thing about it was that I got to be a part of the trial mechanics from the creation of witness statements to the trial itself. The hearing had one day for oral openings, a few days for cross-examination, and a final day for oral closing arguments. It was a chance to see some of the best barristers' chambers in London go head to head. 

When it was going well for us, I was like this:

But then if things got tense, I was more like this:

This edition of Legalspeak is dedicated to the strange and funny way that counsel (i.e. barristers) speak. They probably take it for granted, but I thought it would be helpful if I translated some of the more common phrases I came across during the trial.

'It is surprising that...'
'My friend may have forgotten that...'

Translation: 

'That is clearly a false story'
'Sir, that just can't be right'

Translation:

To a witness: 'You candidly accepted yesterday that...'

Translation: you totally screwed up yesterday

Similar: 'Would it surprise you to learn that you said the complete opposite in your witness statement?'

Translation:

And then: 'I suggest to you that you are now not giving a straightforward answer because it is not helpful to your case'

Translation:

'I'm afraid my friend is leading you into legal error'

Translation:

'Sir, that approach isn't so much incredible as it is unprincipled'

Translation: daymm

And my particular favourite: 'Could you please read through that passage as quickly as you can. Take your time'

Translation: I'm running out of time with this cross-examination but I want to appear calm and in control.


Some other less funny, but still interesting turns of phrase that I came across:

• 'You will see on the documents that...': i.e. I'm totally generalising here.

• 'This is the proposition I am going to seek to make good': i.e. I'll soon direct you to the evidence that supports my statement.

• 'I'm going to take you there' vs. 'I'm not going to take you there': i.e. some documents are so important that you, the judge, should read it yourself, but otherwise you get the gist.

• 'And just to take it slowly, for my benefit...': i.e. I want to emphasise this point to the judge but I want to make it look like it comes from you.

I found the trial a lot of fun, and it was easy to slip into being a spectator and forget that I actually had work to do! With our submissions in, I will be doing a little follow-up work but otherwise, it'll be interesting to see what the rest of my litigation seat will be like! Only one month to go until I rotate: how did August creep around so soon?!

Truth bombs: the hardest parts of being a trainee lawyer

So I took a bit of a hiatus from my blog to spend time with my parents and my fiancé who came to visit from Australia. I had a fun, relaxing week with them and then an exciting week back at work where we're in the middle of the trial that my group has been working towards for over a year. 

I've had such a great time over the past couple of weeks (both in and out of work), that it might strike you as strange that I would write about some of the more difficult parts of being a trainee lawyer - but for those curious about what it's like, I felt it was fair to present both sides, and for those in my intake who are reading this, you might identify with some of it! 

Therefore, I present to you, a few truth bombs about being a trainee lawyer:

1. The late hours

I don't think this one will surprise anyone: lawyers work long hours! And as I've mentioned in other posts, trainees are cheap, and so will get the more time-consuming tasks. Sometimes, you will be alone at your desk, it's late, and the automatic sensor lights start shutting off around you. To distract yourself from how depressing this is, my friends and I have agreed that it's best to create your own entertainment. My favourite tip came from a friend who said he turns whatever activity he's doing into a song: "I'm tyyping at my keyyboard.....mmmm....now I'm staapling some doooo-cuments". It feels a bit like this:

Other times, you'll be working late with your team, and that can actually be really fun. I had a great time a few weeks ago, doing bundling (i.e. creating folders for trial) while listening to Eurovision winners from the past 10 years. So it's not always bad!

The thing to know about late hours though, is that it's usually fine at the time ... what's worse, is having to get through the next day:

2. The menial work

This might be another obvious one: as a trainee, sometimes you get

1. boring, menial tasks that anyone could do (e.g. bundling) and/or 
2. tasks that are fairly interesting in the beginning, but you do it for so long that it gets repetitive and boring (e.g. document review)

In both cases, it can be hard to stop yourself thinking about how many years you spent at university to do work that feels a bit like this: 

But on the other hand, I am an example of how useful it can be doing these tasks: having spent months organising and creating document folders for trial, once I got to the trial, I knew almost EVERYTHING that was going on. I was so familiar with the evidence, that it made the trial fascinating. So now I can see the benefit of doing the grunt work, but it doesn't make it any more interesting at the time!!

3. The hierarchy

Law firms are extremely hierarchical and as a trainee you are at the bottom of the food chain. This feature comes in very different forms, which has been relaxed to some extent over the past few years. For example, when you get in a black cab with your team, the trainees are expected to sit on the shitty fold down seats facing backwards, and to give the better seats to the more senior lawyers. I had no idea, and sat in the good seat, and got teased about it the whole trip ("trainees these days!"). It was all in good fun, but I've never made that mistake again! On the other hand, I was told that "back in the day", the most junior lawyer in the taxi would be responsible for paying. Obviously you'd get reimbursed, but it means that even today, some of the older, more senior partners don't carry their wallets with them when they go out. Very funny!

4. The stressful environment

You are working in a highly-stressful environment. This means that, unfortunately, from time to time, someone might take their stress out on you - either by snapping, yelling, being passive aggressive, or by blaming you for something going wrong. I think this is a by-product of the hierarchical system described above, where (because you're lower on the food chain) you can become the scapegoat. 

This obviously happens in life more generally, and so it really varies from person to person, group to group. If or when it does happen, you just remember not to take anything personally and in most cases, that person will either be super nice or even apologise afterwards because it was done in the heat of the moment and they feel terrible! So my advice is to put on your war face and even if your pride is hurt, learn to let it go. Then remember it for when you're a more senior lawyer yourself!

5. Legal research is not as fun as you think

I'm a massive law nerd, so was excited about the prospect of legal research tasks at work. Unfortunately, as my friend pointed out, legal research at work is usually to check that a legal point ISN'T there, or DOESN'T exist, and canvassing the law to ensure that something isn't there, is not nearly as fun! It means that when one of your fellow trainees gets a good research task, you're a bit jealous.

6. Faking enthusiasm

I think we must have been told 5 or 6 times during our induction that it's important for trainees to be "enthusiastic". It's easy enough when you're enjoying the task you're doing or have had a great week, but it's much more difficult when you feel like hitting your head against the wall. I now understand the point: you're working closely in a team, and it's about making working conditions as pleasant as possible for everyone. But sometimes you just feel like this:

7. The worst thing...

And the very worst thing about being a trainee, is that you can never feel sorry for yourself, because every associate, senior associate and junior partner you work for HAS BEEN THROUGH EXACTLY THE SAME THING!! I let out a heavy sigh once while cross-referencing a witness statement (refer back to Point 6 on enthusiasm), and my supervisor cheerily began reminiscing the time that he had to cross-reference 30 witness statements when he was a trainee.

It's just part of "growing up" and you know that things get better, from week to week, month to month, and year to year and you just have to pull through.

Please let me know if you have any more suggestions!! :D 

Travel Update: My Dedication to the Weekend

Having made the decision to move to the UK, I promised myself that I would try to do one new thing every weekend. That way, I avoid turning into a weekend slob and I make the most of living in London. It also gives me something to look forward to every week. Yesterday, for example, I saw Pirates of Penzance at the English National Opera and felt very cultured (ignoring the fact that my friends and I were the only ones in our 20s, sitting in-between primary school kids on a school excursion and octogenarian fans of Gilbert and Sullivan). This post is my Dedication to the Weekend and to some of the places I've explored so far (in no particular order)

Belton Horse Trials

My first trip outside of London was to Grantham for the Belton International Horse Trials. It was so lovely to get out into the country, and I think I must have stood in the paddock for 5 full minutes breathing in deeply the fresh country air (slightly awkward for my friends standing nearby). I'd forgotten how much, living in East London, I missed open space. How I knew the event was "a bit posh": the ridiculously expensive Wellies (gumboots), the fact that everyone was wearing "gilets" (and that I look up what a "gilet" was) and seeing that one of the stalls was selling top hats (see right).

Kensington Palace

Kensington Palace is the official royal residence of Prince William, Princess Kate and Prince Harry...though of course they were nowhere to be seen. It's lovely to be able to take a stroll and appreciate the gardens, the architecture and (again) the open space of a royal residence and just be, without it having to be a big deal.

Oxford

I try to get to Oxford once a month to visit my friends who are still there doing MPhils (another type of Masters) or DPhils (PhDs). The first time I went back, it was really strange - like having the same dream twice in a row or visiting your childhood home again.  The second time I went back, everything fell back into place: my friends and I updated each other on our new lives, the city lost its dream-like haze and instead took on a comfortable familiarity. I look forward to going back every month.

Cambridge

Compared to Oxford, I found Cambridge to be much warmer and more welcoming - maybe it's the effect of red brick compared to sandstone. I loved the bicycling students, the cobbled streets and historical plaques reminding you of the great people that have lived there and events that have taken place. Alas, no Stephen Hawking to be seen!

Cutty Sark and the Old Naval College

I went to Cutty Sark (the name of an old 19th century ship in which you can now eat dinner!) where I went to a lovely pub called (unsurprisingly) The Cutty Sark. It was a gorgeous old, mahogany pub, overlooking the Thames, and I walked through the Old Naval College on the way. It was such a lovely experience that I've added it to this list!

Hatfield House

One weekend, a couple of my friends and I went to Hatfield House, in Hertfordshire. It is a gorgeous "country house" (i.e. mansion) where Elizabeth I grew up, and was built in 1611. Such gorgeous gardens and unique architecture, I realised that I keep trying to get out of London and enjoy open space! It was such a pleasure to wander and enjoy the classic English gardens. 

Above is the side view!

The front of the House

Hamstead Heath and Kenwood House

Last weekend my friend and I wanted to enjoy the sunshine (while it lasted). We went to Hamstead Heath, which is an absolutely stunning expanse of woodlands, open paddocks and lakes, with beautiful houses and water features emerging from where you least expect them. Hundreds of people were picnicking with spreads of breads, cheeses, fruit platters and sweets, and children were playing ball games and chasing each other around. It was idyllic. 

Picnickers enjoying the sunshine

A beautiful public walkway

Only in England...

We walked around for three hours and ended up at Kenwood House, which had been on my bucket list ever since I watched Notting Hill (think the scene where Anna Scott acts in a Henry James film and William Thacker overhears her conversation with a co-star). It was very pretty inside, with a library to die for, but again, my friend and I thought to ourselves: how could anyone have ever called this their house?!

To refresh your memory...

...and my photo!

My favourite room was the library

I feel like I'm starting to chip away at this great big city and its surrounds now, and I hope you all enjoyed my travel update!