Minnie Wu

6.00 AM

Time to rise and shine! I usually start the day with a morning gym session to help me wake up and get ready for the day ahead. After the gym, I head to Café Clutz on Level 15 of our Sydney office for some breakfast. My go-to order: the breakfast wrap and a coffee!

8.30 AM

After breakfast, I head to my office. I am currently in my second rotation in the Competition team - which is quite a large team and operates on a resource-sharing basis, giving junior lawyers plenty of exposure to different types of matters. I spend a few minutes walking around the floor saying good morning and catching up with my colleagues. I make a note of who is working from home so that I can check in with them via Teams (internal messaging platform) later if I'm not busy. After all my hellos are said, I start the day by checking my emails. I also check my daily to-do list which I prepared yesterday, and number the tasks in order of priority.

09:00 AM

I get started on my daily tasks - the first of which is to reply to a corporate client's email requesting advice on Australian corporate governance and competition law. I bring out my notepad and start brainstorming how I will approach this task so I am giving the client a practical, commercial response. I start reviewing the relevant material from the client and considering the relevant ASIC and ACCC guidance notes and relevant legislation. Clayton Utz has an online library and a few very handy annotated versions of the two pieces of legislation, which is useful as a starting point for a junior lawyer. Personally, I like to break down tasks and have a go at the advice first before contacting the supervising partner so that I can ask more specific questions.

11:00 AM

I finish the draft email response to the client, and I send it off to my supervising partner, who will review it and provide feedback. Shortly after sending it, my partner walks over to my office to discuss what else I have on my plate and whether I have anything critical I want to raise about the task I just completed. Although a partner calling you out of the blue or walking over to your office can be daunting, it gives you really good (and important) exposure to people's different communication and working styles.

After our chat, I update my team's capacity report - an online tool on our firm intranet where everyone in the team can indicate their workload capacity on any given day. I can also review what other active matters the team has and check whether I can help on any of these. After reviewing the capacity report, I go back to my list of daily tasks. My next task is to review a contract to ensure it complies with Australian Consumer law.  

1:00 PM

Time for lunch! I always try to have lunch away from my desk. Today, lunch is with some friends from my graduate cohort. We usually meet up at a nearby food court or go up to Level 15 to catch up about work, our hobbies and what we did over the weekend. I find that my clerk and graduate cohorts are always super supportive of each other and understand that the change from university to working full-time is not easy.

I personally love spending time on Level 15, just look at this view!

2:00 PM

After lunch, I re-review the contract I was working on in the morning. I like to break up long tasks to ensure that I approach each task with fresh eyes. I utilise the review panel in Microsoft word to leave mark-ups, comments and queries for my supervising partner. Pretty soon the whole document is filled with comment bubbles. It is also time to remind myself to utilise my standing desk!

3:00 PM

I hit save on my contact review task and prepare a client meeting memo template for a client meeting I will be attending at 3:30 pm. The meeting is to help a client review their corporate and market strategy from a legal point of view. I review the agenda for the meeting and consider who will be in attendance. I also use this time to read up on any relevant background documents to ensure that I can take accurate notes during the meeting and pick up on any actionable tasks which arise from the call.

3:30 PM

I attend the virtual client meeting from my office with my supervising partner and senior associate all dialling in separately. During the call, I take detailed notes and make sure to highlight any advice our team provided to the client over the call. I also make notes of additional questions which the client brought up.

4:30 PM

After the meeting, I circulate the notes from the call to the partner and senior associate. I also email the client confirming the time format of our next meeting and write a list of actionable tasks we'll need to do in advance. After sending off this email, I walk over to my partner's office to confirm which tasks I can assist with. Usually, tasks which arise from client meetings will be more urgent, so I get to these tasks first.

After confirming my additional tasks, I add them to my to-do list and leave the office to avoid peak hour traffic. The firm is very flexible about what time people attend the office as long as you have open communication and someone knows where you are. I usually let people know that I'm leaving but will be logging back on after I arrive home.

5:00 PM

I arrive home and continue working on the tasks from the meeting. I review my meeting notes and consider whether I'm missing any relevant information. If so, I usually shoot a Teams message to my senior associate asking for help. Once I'm happy with my work, I send it off to the senior associate for review and to confirm if there is anything else I can assist with.

6:00 PM

Upon confirming that my tasks from the meeting are done, I go back to the contract review I was working on this morning. I am happy with my progress but decide I should sleep on it and finalise the review tomorrow to ensure I have not missed anything. I re-check my to-do list and note down 'contract review' as my priority task for tomorrow. I tell my team that I'll be heading off for the night.

6:30 PM

My pub trivia night begins. I use this time to relax and connect with family and friends. After trivia and dinner, I head home to relax before bed. During this time I will take a quick glance at my phone to ensure no new emails have come through. If they have, I add them to my to-do list for tomorrow. If there are no emails, I head off to dreamland to rest up before another exciting day at work tomorrow.

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