Read her latest blog below...October 2009I seem to recall when I first went to university that I blinked and it was Christmas. This inexorable acceleration in the passage of time has been evident in my traineeship also
. I have been so busy that I have not been able to fit in a blink, and a month in my third seat has gone.
From my first seat in Corporate, to my second predominantly in Property, and now to Corporate Recovery, my skills and experience have grown. I feel a certain coming together as I deal with various tasks in connection with companies, often with portfolios of property assets, facing up to refinancing and restructuring. Also familiar from my previous experience is the need to juggle a large number of tasks at the same time.
In contrast with my Property juggling however, I am supporting a larger number of fee earners in Corporate Recovery and so am seeing a wider range of tasks. My challenge for the rest of this seat is to establish the exact meaning of the term 'urgent'. Sometimes it means 'stop what you are doing and do this now urgent'. Sometimes it means 'this has to go out tonight urgent'. And sometimes it means the deadline is unimaginably distant, e.g. more than a working day, but it is 'a very important task and the sooner this is done the better' urgent.
Besides administrative and checking type tasks ensuring that documentation is in place, correctly completed and indexed, I have been involved in security reviews as banks seek to ensure that their investments are properly protected. I also do various research tasks for example dealing with nuances in the differences between liquidation and administration, and jurisdictional questions including the reach of EU regulations.
Our Corporate Recovery Services team is operating at full throttle: the insipid and protracted nature of the recovery means that this is likely to be the case for some time.
All this hard work demands sustenance, and so it is that on a Friday morning I am dispatched, in rotation with my fellow trainee, on the bun run. This is where all that juggling and organisational skills practice comes into its own. Coffees for up to 16 people, and let's recall that the optionality of modern coffee consumption has gone beyond milk: yes/no, sugars: how many? Latte Machiato Double Espresso with sprinkles and syrup. Organic beans sir? Hot milk? I draw the line at going to two different shops in order to secure special blend Java, and I have run out of column inches to cover the food order!
Working in such a large team does lead to a more active social life and we have the critical mass for more lunches and drinks after work events. Perhaps it is a sign of my absorption into the life of a corporate law firm that I include this in my social life, but I have also attended 'drinks with clients' affairs and a couple of seminars arranged by accountancy firms. I will provide an update on the definition and usage of 'urgent' in due course!
