📆 28 September – 2 October 2021 📆
To whoever is reading this,
It’s the 28th September! It’s crazy to think this is the day I’ve been waiting for since I was 5 years old. I know it sounds like a cliche, I don’t want to be the girl that says she’s wanted to be a lawyer since forever, but it’s true. Yes, I’ve had a few minor deviations, wanting to be an astronaut, roller skating waitress or a singer (what a disaster that would have been) but it always came back to law.
I’ve worked since I was 13, but for my family’s ice cream parlour, so very different to a law firm. Even the legal experience I had, shadowing family solicitors, researching for academic journals, doing paralegal jobs didn’t compare. I always knew my end date. For this firm, maybe I’ll be one of the many that stay there for the next 30+ years? So I was excited on my first day as a litigation executive – I remember waiting for my interview for a Training Contract to be scheduled, I didn’t leave the house for 2 weeks. I sat at home on my computer, refreshing my emails every 10minutes. When I finally got my interview date and then a call a few days later to say I’d been accepted for the 2021 intake, it was the best and most surreal day of my life. A week later, when I was offered a job working for a year as a litigation executive before my TC started, I jumped at the chance. Even though I was convinced I’d hate litigation 🤷🏻♀️
On my first day, I drove to work and never felt more grown up in my life… with my mum co-driving in the passenger seat as I was too scared to go on the motorway alone. I ended up being more than 30minutes early for my first day, hid in a no parking zone right in front of the firm and got caught by one of the employees. Things like that would have mortified me in the past, but surprisingly, it made me feel more at ease. I was too nervous, so to this day, I have no idea who that woman was. All I remember was how kind she was to me.
The rest of the day was a blur, with training and meeting everyone. I don’t want to harp on about covid (as if we haven’t had enough of that this year) but because of that, the firm was nearly empty. It was the strangest feeling, but in comparison to some of my friends that also started a new job at the same time, I was lucky, I got to meet about half of my team in person.
Because of social distancing, I was also worried about how I would make connections with other people outside of my team. But people would come into the office throughout the day to introduce themselves to me. It’s so nice to work for a firm that is so welcoming and friendly. In my tips on Trainee Applications article, the people and the atmosphere were one of the main reasons I chose to apply for this firm in the first place.
If you’ve gotten this far, just know how much I appreciate it. I am literally typing my thoughts as they come into my mind so bare with me! See you all next week where I’ll write a little more about meeting my team and working from the office.
Love Ang x
Legally Correct 