Lydia Watson-Moore

6.15 AM

My alarm goes off and I'm straight into my workout clothes to do some yoga at home. I never used to be an at-home exercise person, but when COVID first hit, the gym closures forced me to start the WFH (workout from home) lifestyle. Now we're at 'COVID-normal', and I alternate between the gym and home – today is a home day as I've just recently recovered from my second hit of COVID and want to ease back in to exercise.

7.00 AM

After my workout, I get ready for work. My typical weekday breakfast is a protein smoothie, and today's is chocolate/peanut butter/banana flavour! I always have breakfast television playing in the background while I get ready – I feel out of the loop if I don't watch some form of news each day. Today is Friday, which means casual office attire – this is one of the reasons Fridays are my favourite office day.

8.00 AM

I have a good run into work on public transport (which, given Sydney's public transport network, is actually a surprise).

8.30 AM

I arrive at the office and greet a few colleagues who are already in. Given I had COVID last week, today is only my second day back in the office in almost two weeks, and it's good to see a few people in person who I haven’t seen for a while. Allens does hybrid working really well (I typically work three days in the office, two days at home), but it's good to get some face to face socialising in!  I'm also lucky enough to have a great view from my office (which is a lot better than my WFH view!)

8.45 AM

I am presenting at our team's CPD session today (for non-lawyers, that is continuing professional development) and want to pull together a couple of slides for my presentation. I find people can follow along much better if they have a visual aid, particularly when the subject matter is quite technical.

9.00 AM

I join a Microsoft Teams call with one of the experts for a compulsory acquisition litigation matter I'm working on. This expert has prepared a draft of his expert report which we have a few questions about. It's just me on this call with him, but I'm comfortable to talk him through our questions (which I'd discussed earlier in the week with the senior lawyer on the matter). We set a deadline for his next draft, and I agree to send him my comments via email later in the day.

9.30 AM

After finishing my call with the expert, I mark up a copy of his report with the questions and comments. I also make a cup of tea in the kitchen before our 10am session – I'm not a coffee drinker (shock!) so I typically drink a few black teas each day.

10.00 AM

Most of the Environment and Planning team head to a meeting room for our CPD session. Our team puts on these sessions every month or so, and they are a great way to keep up to date with legal developments, interesting cases and particular areas of law our team are currently looking at. I'm one of three presenters for today, and I speak for about 10 minutes on a very technical legal research question I've been looking at for a client. Overall, it's a great CPD session.

11.00 AM

After the CPD session, I'm straight onto a call with one of the partners in my team and one of our clients. We have been working with this client for about nine months in relation to a legal issue concerning their development consent on a site they operate. Today's call is to get an update on the status of negotiations with the other side, and the action from the meeting is for us to prepare a further letter to the other side. This will be on my to-do list.

11.30 AM

The partner and I debrief after the call and discuss the contents of the letter. I keep my mid-morning hunger at bay with a protein bar I brought from home, although I often mix it up with a snack from the floor kitchen – my favourite are the chocolate almonds!

11.40 AM

I continue marking up the expert report from earlier. I'm keen to get this to the expert as soon as possible so he can continue working on it, as our deadline for filing is only two weeks away, and we would like to review the next draft several days before the deadline. I finish marking up my comments and send it to the senior lawyer on the matter to confirm she's happy with my work.

12.00 PM

I meet with that senior lawyer in her office to discuss a different matter. She and the partner had a call with this client the day before – it is an ongoing matter I've assisted with over the last few months, and there are some new research points she'd like me to consider. The client is currently considering its development pathway options for a new large development on a site which has tricky local controls – it's a complex matter. The senior lawyer instructs me on this further research, which is going to involve case searching, reviewing explanatory memoranda and other guidance documents on the relevant legislation, and review of other similar project approvals.

12.45 PM

The senior lawyer confirms she is happy for me to send my report mark up to the expert, so I get that off to him so he can start reviewing.

12.50 PM

I start drafting the letter we discussed at the 11am call. I review some of our previous letters in this matter for inspiration on style of language and formality.

1.30 PM

I leave the office with a partner and associate from my team to attend a client lunch. I've only attended a few client celebrations, so this is not a typical day! This lunch is to celebrate a successful court appeal which the three of us worked on all throughout last year. Our client recently received the court's decision from last year's hearing – they were granted consent for an exciting large mixed-use development. It's a really nice opportunity to catch up with our contacts at this client. The food is fantastic (see photo of the dessert cart!) and I also pick up some insights into this client's business model and their experiences in other states in Australia.

4.30 PM

I hadn't expected lunch to go so long! Thankfully I didn’t have anything that needed to be done this afternoon, though I check through my emails to make sure I don’t need to quickly log back on to sort anything urgent.

5.00 PM

Our team is going out for our Friday get together – we typically do this every few weeks, but we're also welcoming a new lawyer who joined our team this week. I've been allocated as her buddy to help her settle into the team, so I make sure to catch her to debrief on her week  (all good so far!). It's nice to get a collection of different team members at our social get togethers – today we've got one of the partners and another soon-to-be partner! I stay for a couple of drinks before heading home to get ready for a friend's birthday party later in the evening.

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