Name: Peter Roberts
University attended:
University of Reading
Degree obtained:
History

Peter Roberts is a second year trainee at Mills & Reeve. He graduated from the University of Reading and completed a vacation scheme in the firm’s Cambridge office in 2004.

I discovered Mills & Reeve through career publications such as GET Law, applied for their vacation scheme, got through the interviews and was selected for a training contract, where I am now a first year trainee. The firm stood out because it didn’t try to be anything other than what it is: a friendly, first-class law firm. I’m currently sitting in the Construction department in Cambridge.

Morning

9am – Arrive at my desk, switch on computer, make a cup of coffee and open my post.

9.30am – After sifting through my e-mails and checking my task list for today, I finish off a chasing letter to another firm of solicitors requesting they send me documents they omitted to send first time around. My supervisor reads my attempt and makes a few minor corrections. I re-edit the letter and print it for posting.

11am – With another trainee, hold a video conference with the marketing team in the Norwich office to finalise arrangements for the agriculture department’s marketing event later in the week, in which I’m heavily involved. As trainees, we will have a whole day of client contact and be responsible for ensuring the itinerary unfolds as it should.

11.30am – Back to my desk for a departmental meeting in which the team head congratulates everyone for beating the department’s 2005/2006 target at the end of the firm’s financial year. 

Afternoon

12pm – Check e-mails and reply to an invitation to play in the office cricket team later in the week against another local professional firm.

12.05pm – Ring the Technology and Construction Court in Liverpool to confirm that a Case Management Conference we are listed as needing to attend has been cancelled. Faxing through a copy of our letter to the court, which they had mislaid, that confirmed why we no longer needed to attend and copying to the other side.

12.30pm – Receive instructions from my supervisor for the drafting of a Part 36 offer that she wants me to attempt the first draft of.  End up discussing the merits of the particular case with her for some time.

1pm – Grab a takeaway salad with two other trainees from a French café before sitting in the Botanic Gardens for my lunch break. Feed bread to the ducklings in the duck pond!

2pm – Training session with IT trainer on how to use the letter of engagement wizard on the firm’s system.

3pm – Commissioning expense cheques to send to participants in the firm who took part in a pro bono 24-hour walking challenge two weeks ago that I had been heavily involved in organising.

3.15pm – Meeting a new client with a partner for first instructions. The client is a wealthy individual in dispute with the architects and builders of his new house. Throughout the meeting I take notes to write up afterwards. I chat with the client while the partner looks through paperwork the client had brought to the meeting.

4.30pm – Returning to my desk I discover that one of the team needs me to research a point under the Unfair Contracts Terms Act 1977. Spend the rest of the afternoon looking up case law and statute via the firm’s internal know-how and through legal search engines before putting my answer down in a memo for the benefit of the file and the fee-earner who needed the research.

5.45pm – Leave work and go to a nearby bar where I have arranged a drinks and awards ceremony for the 24-hour walking challenge participants. Get my drinks bought for me by a partner and present the winners with bottles of champagne. Head home at 8pm, feeling good.

‘The firm stood out because it didn’t try to be anything other than what it is: a friendly, first-class law firm.’