Apologies for the lack of upates, but things have become increasingly more hectic as my first vacation scheme drew to a close. Beginning with the non-legal, last weekend my mother celebrated her 50th birthday, which involved having the extended family and various others over at ours, giving Kirsten the first opportunity to meet them. It all went remarkably well and she demonstrated a fine curry tolerance. She found four-year-old Sebastian particularly cute — but then who wouldn’t?
Returning to work on Monday, it was the week of our group presentation so we knuckled down and finished off the handout booklet, powerpoint slideshow and our speeches. Or so we thought. In Tuesday’s workshop, Diane explained that we had misinterpreted the brief and proceeded to “correct” us. The fact that the other group made exactly the same “mistake” implies that we interpreted perfectly well, it was just wrong. We could hardly argue so both groups spent the next stressful day reworking their material for the Partners on Thursday.
It’s impossible to tell how one will react upon walking into a room to offer a presentation to those who will be deciding your fate in a few short minutes (including the firm’s CEO). Remarkably, everyone seemed calm and it flowed magnificently. Although our group was the losing one, I was more than happy with our performance, particularly in answering questions at the end. Managing to make a room full of Partners erupt into laughter (for the right reasons) is an experience I won’t soon forget, and they certainly seemed impressed by my performance.
It was sad to end this stint since it’s been such an awesome bunch of people that genuinely clicked as a cohesive group. I fear it will be impossible to replicate in the next placement. Should we end up together, it could also make for an interesting training contract crowd as the majority of us will be starting ours at the same time. As a second year law student the firm cannot officially make me an offer yet, due to Law Society rules. Let’s just say that signs are positive that I may wish to be around in September to see what their letter says…
With my stint at Bird & Bird now over, we will shortly be resuming normal service under the usual title once more.
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