By Trainee Solicitor Alice Ridge.
As a trainee who has done two of my six seats in the Tax, Trusts and Family department (one in UK Tax and another in International Tax), I have written this blog to give an idea of the kind of work a trainee in the department can expect to do.
9am: Log in to my computer, check my emails and calendar and plan my to-do list for the day.
9.30am: Join the International team’s daily video call. This is a great way to stay in touch every day and to make sure the team knows who has capacity. This is one of my favourite things about being part of a smaller team as it provides a great opportunity to get to know people better.
9.45am: I go through everyone’s calendar in the TTF department and create the weekly business development calendar which captures all BD events that week that people are attending. Our TTF department brings in a lot of its work through referrals, so business development is hugely important for us as a team.
10.15am: Attend a virtual client call with a partner in the department to take an attendance note. This is an initial call with a new client to find out about their circumstances, assets and how we may be able to help them with any tax planning.
11am: Catch up call with my supervisor to discuss the work I currently have on and to take instructions on a couple of new tasks.
11.30am: Drafting Wills for a husband and wife. Clients of our international team almost always have international considerations, whether that be nationality, foreign assets or otherwise, so the Wills we draft have to address these.
1pm: I grab my lunch to eat while attending a virtual lunchtime training session with the whole of the TTF department on Inheritance Tax updates. The department runs regular training sessions because tax is such a technical area of law that is always changing. There’s so much to learn!
2pm: Receive a Teams call from a colleague asking me to do some immigration law research and to produce a report with my findings. I get started on this straight away and spend time looking at the Immigration Rules and how these may apply to our Hong Kong-based client’s circumstances.
3pm: Virtual coffee with some of my trainee friends. We try and stay in touch and have weekly calls to check in on each other. We have formed some strong friendships in our intake and these regular catch-ups are a must for our mental wellbeing during home working.
3.30pm: A quick call to the Office of the Public Guardian to check on the status of some Lasting Power of Attorney applications that we recently submitted. I follow up with a quick note for our file and diarise when to call back if we haven’t received the registered applications by a certain date.
4pm: Collating information for our international client who has several companies and bank accounts across the world. HMRC has opened an enquiry into his UK tax position and I am assisting with collating the client’s information for our response to HMRC’s latest letter.
5.45pm: A quick check of my to-do list to ensure I have covered everything that needed doing today and reply to any emails that need a response today.
6.15pm: One of the trainees has kindly organised an online escape room as a virtual social. This is a great way for us to get to know the new intake of trainees and to take our minds off work for an evening!