A Day In The Life of a Top Tier Graduate

For those of us lucky enough to land a coveted spot at an illustrious top-tier law firm, we often wonder what will happen next. Entering a new corporate environment, especially if it is your first job in the corporate sector, can be daunting to say the least. To provide a bit more clarity around this, we asked a Graduate at a top-tier firm what their day typically looks like.

No matter what you’re doing with your day, most Melbournians start off with a good cup of coffee. Now, for those of you who don’t drink coffee like our Graduate (blasphemous in Melbourne), you can opt for a nice hot cup of tea. Then begins the usual morning routine; checking emails, responding to queries and organising your work for the day.

The workflow can vary depending on the team you’re in. For example, if you’re in the banking team during the Royal Commission, expect a few late nights. But sometimes, teams don’t have much work, which means that you spend your day scrapping for tasks. To add to this, partners and senior associates are so busy with their own work, that they don’t have much time to find work for you to do. Sometimes, those days can be a blessing in disguise, breaking up a long, intensive work period.

So how do you maintain your sanity and productivity during a long, hard, work day? Our Graduate likes to go for a walk around the office and have non-work related conversations with colleagues. It can be difficult to break out of the ‘work bubble’! We certainly know how to hold a conversation about the fact that we are law students (as a law student, I can attest to this)! Having light hearted conversations and forgetting about the impending advice that needs to be written can help break up your day and keep you sane!

Now we get to the part we all are dying to know about: what time can you go home? Well, here’s a great, non-ambiguous answer for you; it all depends on workflow! Sometimes you go home on time and sometimes you stay back a few hours. That’s just how the cookie crumbles! But let’s not forget this isn’t limited to law firms. No matter what kind of work environment you find yourself in, there may be times where you find you have to put in that little bit extra to get the job done.

As demanding as it may be, working as a Graduate at a top-tier firm allows you to develop your skills as a lawyer, all while working on some interesting and complex matters! 

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