Friday, July 11, 1630hrsI could get used to this Corporate Law malarkey. I arrived back on Monday from a week's holiday in Spain and was all set to get my nose back on the grindstone. My bum was barely on my seat when I was infor
med that the Partner with whom I share a room wasn't well and that I would be taking his place at a corporate golf event.
This entailed a round of golf at an exclusive course in Perthshire as well as lunch, dinner and goodie bags. It was a Trainee's dream: free stuff and a day away from the office. When I arrived I quickly realised I was the youngest person there by a clear 15 years. Feeling like a bit of an imposter, I tried my best to get involved in the corporate chat and whenever possible attempted to level the playing field and talk about golf or football; at least then I knew what I was jibbering about.
Back in the office and things have been quieter for me in the department. This has come as something of a surprise. My preconceptions of the corporate department was of late nights, early mornings and no social life, but these fears have, thankfully, been unfounded. After the mayhem of the tax year end rush, everyone is now taking the opportunity to go on holiday and I've been involved in company secretarial work. This is pretty much what we did in Company & Commercial on the Diploma - filling out Companies House Forms, drafting minutes and resolutions etc.
I've also been summarising Share Purchase Agreements for clients which has been a good way to get to know and understand long and often complex legal documents. Fortunately there is plenty of transaction work on the horizon so my work load should be picking up soon. It feels strange saying that I'm looking forward to doing more work and being busier (it goes against everything I stood for as a student) but the truth is I'm actually quite taken by Corporate Law and I'm looking forward to being involved in some more high value deals again soon.
I've also been experiencing some of the bonuses of working in a multi-discipline firm. Not only have I been doing corporate work, but I've also been involved in the litigation side of a deal where there was a breakdown in relations between the parties.
In addition, I was in court for a day shadowing counsel for a completely unrelated matter. Again this was a really good experience as the advocate I was shadowing was an excellent orator in the Donald Findlay mould. I've even gone back to doing some conveyancing - this time for a relative of one of the partners in the corporate department. No pressure there then! I thought I'd have lost all my conveyancing knowledge (there wasn't much there, so it would be easy to misplace) after a few months of corporate, but luckily it all flooded back.
So at the moment variety is indeed the spice of life for this trainee.
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