A Day in the Life of a Family Law Trainee

Today is a slightly different start to the day because I am attending court alongside one of the partners in the department. I leave home and make the drive to one of the local courts. We need to arrive by 9am to have discussions with our client and the other party, prior to going before the Judge.

The matter is a financial remedy case dealing with the division of the parties’ property and assets following their divorce. Today we have a pre-trial review – a case management hearing to ensure everyone is prepared for the final hearing in a month or so.

We have recently had a Conference with Counsel (a meeting between us, the client, and a barrister to discuss the case and our ongoing strategy) on this case so there is not too much to discuss, other than some recent updates and matters specifically for this hearing.

After discussions, we go before the Judge and make our submissions. The partner I am accompanying is conducting the advocacy for the client today and I am taking a note of everything discussed in court. I really enjoy attending court and hearing the submissions made and how different advocates deal with the questions asked by the Judge – you definitely need to be able to think quickly on your feet!

There are a few points of contention during the hearing, but the Judge decides on them and makes some directions (formal instructions) to help the parties prepare for the final hearing, to make sure it remains effective. Once we finish in front of the Judge, we have some more discussions with the client about the way forward and make a plan for the next steps.

We leave court late-morning and I decide to head back to the office to tidy up the note from the hearing – I always find it best to finish this as soon as possible whilst everything is fresh in my mind. After this, I start preparing a bundle for another matter that is in court next week. Thankfully, we have some very useful bundling software to help with this, so it is just a matter of identifying the necessary documents, making sure they are labelled correctly and putting them in the correct order, as required by the court. Once prepared, I file the bundle with the court and also serve it on the other party. At the same time, I liaise with the other side to organise exchange of our position statements in advance of the hearing. By the time I have finished this, it is time for lunch, and I head out with some of my colleagues from the office. During lunch, we discuss our plans for an upcoming episode of the Trainee Talks podcast.

After lunch, I get on with drafting a Schedule of Allegations and supporting statement for a client currently involved in child arrangement proceedings. This involves setting out the allegations made by our client and the incidents they can recall, to evidence these. The schedule and statement will be used by the court to help decide whether a fact-finding hearing will be necessary to determine the allegations made by each party. Once drafted, I send these off to my supervisor for approval. The drafting takes up most of the afternoon and I finish off with some administrative tasks including preparing my to-do list for the next day.

I log off a little early today as that evening I am attending a networking event with some of my colleagues in the private family team. The event is a Christmas thank-you event hosted by the local hospice who Machins support. I see some familiar faces from another networking event I attend locally and also some new ones. The event was a lovely way to start getting excited for Christmas and I even manage to win something in the tombola! After a few hours catching up with everyone, I head home – a busy but fun day!

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