Georgia Carnegie

Departments to date: Corporate, Client Secondment, Commercial Property, Property Litigation
University: University of Exeter
Degree: LLB English Law and French Law/Master 1 (Maitrise en Droit)

9.00 am: I check my work emails on my journey to the office to check what has come in overnight and that morning. I also browse the news on my phone and read the top articles on the online real estate publications the firm subscribes to. These are a great source of information as they often contain more detail than is published in the widely available press.

9.30 am: I make a cup of coffee and have a chat with other fee earners in the kitchen doing the same. It’s a really friendly firm and everyone makes you feel very welcome and at ease. I then check over my to-do list and add to it anything that has come in overnight or this morning. I am currently sitting in the Property Litigation department, and this morning I have been asked to review two break notices that have been served on one of our landlord clients in order to advise as to the validity of their service. I check the break notices against the leases we hold on our extranet for this client, and write an email with my findings to the fee earner. I also draft an email to go to the client, confirming the break notices have been validly served, and advise on ancillary points regarding the landlord’s position. Over the course of the morning, I carry out other tasks for the Litigation department, including drafting a letter before action to a tenant who is in arrears with their rent and service charge, preparing a letter serving a schedule of dilapidations on a tenant, and drafting a tenancy at will.

12.00 pm: As it is a Wednesday, we have an internal Know-How training session. These sessions are a great way to keep up to date with changes in the law and current issues. We have a Professional Support Lawyer who provides excellent support to the whole firm, and often sends comprehensive emails in advance of and as a follow up to Wednesday Know How sessions.

2.00 pm: After lunch with other trainees and paralegals, I review any comments received back from work I have prepared for fee earners that morning. I then receive an urgent request from a Partner in the Litigation team to research into recent case law surrounding short term property lets and whether they breach certain user covenants in a lease. It’s an interesting area and I get to work as she has said that it is urgent. I prepare a note presenting my key findings and email it to her asking if she needs any further information.

4.00 pm: Another Partner in the Litigation team asks for my assistance on a new matter, where we are acting for a landlord that has been issued with proceedings in relation to a lease renewal. The current lease to the tenant is being renewed but proceedings have been issued to protect renewal rights, and so the Partner has asked me to prepare and file an Acknowledgement of Service to the claim. This is a strong example of how much Partner contact you get as a Trainee at Maples, and also how much experience you get preparing a wide variety of documents in the Litigation department.

4.30 pm: A common Trainee task is preparing monthly reports for certain clients, showing all matters we are currently working on for them, and what the status is. I prepare this month’s report for one of our clients and send it out to the relevant fee earners who are working on the files and need to update their entries. This task is a good way of engaging with all fee earners, even those you don’t often work with, and is a good chance to also become familiar and aware of the work going on across the firm.

6.00 pm: I go through my email Inbox to check I haven’t missed anything that has come in over the course of the day and then prepare a to do list for tomorrow. I ensure all my time is posted for the day on my time sheet, and then head home.