Somya Rajawat

5:45 AM

My alarm goes off bright and early on a weekday - after hitting the snooze button a few times, I get up and head to the gym.

7:30 AM

After working up a sweat and devouring an acai bowl, I board the bus with my air pods in and a podcast ready to go. While on the bus, I flick through a bunch of my digital news apps to catch up on the day's headlines.

8:00 AM

I am currently rotating through the Commercial Litigation team. As the only rotating lawyer in a very busy (but exciting!) team, it is important that I am organised and prepared. I like to arrive 30 to 45 minutes before the rest of my team so I can set goals for the day and put together a task list. It also gives me some time to stock up on stationery and tidy up my office* which I like to keep really neat and organised.

*Aside from the great people and the exciting work, one of the best things about the Clayton Utz Perth office is that we all get our own offices.

9:00 AM

My team starts to filter in and once a few of us have arrived, we step out to grab a coffee. Team coffees are always a great excuse to stretch our legs, have a chat, and experience the beautiful Perth weather! Sometimes we chat about work and other times we like to enjoy a nice social conversation.

9:30 AM

Once we are back in the office, a lawyer in the team asks me to do some research on a civil procedure related issue. She gives me a detailed briefing of the task. The relevant issue concerns the ability to plead foreign law in an Australian court - which is an incredibly novel and interesting research topic.

11:00 AM

Time to hit the books! After an hour or so of reviewing case law online, I decide that my eyes need a break from the screen. I head to the library and pick out my favourite light read: Zuckerman on Australian Civil Procedure.

1:00 PM

Time flies when you are researching civil procedure! I pause my timer (which we use to record our time) and head to lunch with a mix of people from my team and from my grad cohort. After lunch, we head over to the QV1 Community Garden to go visit the chickens. You would not expect there to be a chicken coop in a 43-storey skyscraper in the middle of the city, but Queenie, Vera, Onesie and CC are highly valued tenants who fit right in.

3:00 PM

After returning from lunch, I spend another hour on the research task before sending off a first draft of the memo for review. The timing works out well, as it is now time for a team meeting to discuss our upcoming retreat to discuss our business development planning, which will be held on Rottnest Island. It will be an opportunity for us to set collective team goals for the coming year - as well as a chance to swim, and see some Quokkas!

4:00 PM

With the day nearly over, I decide to move onto some of the smaller tasks on my to-do list that I can knock off quickly. These include collating authorities, updating court files and working on my pro bono matter (which relates to an application for Criminal Injuries Compensation).

5:30 PM

Before I start packing up, I check in with the rest of my team to see if anyone needs a hand with anything. Every now and then, urgent work can come through at the last minute and it becomes an "all hands on deck" situation. Luckily, today is not one of those days. I check my emails one last time before shutting down my laptop and heading off.

6:00 PM          

I walk home with another grad in my cohort who lives nearby. It is important not to lose sight of work-life balance, so I usually end my day with a session of yoga, before settling for dinner and some hard-earned Netflix streaming.