Author: Sophie Kite
This week we celebrate National Apprenticeship week by highlighting the stories of some of the apprentices who have started their careers at Brethertons. We are proud of the investment we make into those starting their careers and the support we provide to them and all employees in their roles at Brethertons from apprenticeships through to Partnership and Senior Management.
Here Sophie Kite, Legal Assistant in Property Management, reflects on her time as a Legal Secretarial Apprentice at Brethertons.
9am
I started work at 9am. The first thing I would do would be to check my To Do list to see if there was anything I needed to get on with from the previous day. I would also try to do some quick small tasks, such as sending emails out, to get these done and start making a dent in my list of things to do. I worked in a team of three so we would have a chat to organise the workload and share it equally between us.
10am
I would now go through my emails and see if any urgent work had come in and I would task myself with starting anything in my inbox first. This way work could be done and checked in time for the post and if any amendments needed to be made, I would have time to do this before the post round was collected. I always prioritised my work as either urgent, normal or low priority and worked through in this order.
11am
I then went through any work on the system that the Fee Earners would send us. I assisted seven Fee Earners with a variety of work, from drafting letters and emails to making phone calls and making up trial bundles.
12 noon
By this time I would aim to have any urgent work done and would have passed it over to the Fee Earner for checking while continuing to work through any tasks sent to me. I would double check any work I had completed for spelling and grammar mistakes before sending it to the Fee Earners to check. Accuracy was very important in my role.
1pm
Lunchtime! I tried to get any personal tasks done then have a nice break away from my desk. I might go for a walk to break up my day and have some lunch.
2pm
I would catch up with the team, have a little chat about our day and then organise our workloads again to make sure all tasks were completed and to help each other out. We could prioritise what needed to be done next so if any important calls or emails needed to be actioned, we could bring these to the front of the queue and get them done before the end of the day.
3pm
At about 3pm, I would have a snack to keep me refuelled for the afternoon and then I would have a look at any financial matters I may have been asked to deal with such as bills, payment in monies we received or paying any invoices out such as Barrister’s fee notes. This broke up my day from drafting letters and emails and could be actioned swiftly.
4pm
At this point, I would have received any work back from the Fee Earners that may need amending and I would then send any approved correspondence out and do any filing so that it doesn’t pile up and seem an impossible task!
5.30pm
Home time! I always tidied up my desk and made a note of any work I need to start first thing tomorrow on my To Do list before finishing for the day.
I really enjoyed my time as a Legal Secretarial Apprentice as the role was varied and fast paced while allowing me to continue my studies in CILEx Level 2. I was really pleased to secure a role as a Legal Assistant at Brethertons after my Apprenticeship ended and would recommend this route for anyone who wants to study for a qualification but, not full time and be able to earn while learning.
If you would more information on Apprenticeships, please click here.
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