The Running Man

First Week at Work

Its the end of my first week at Ebsworth :), an exciting time and plenty of new people to meet and things to learn :P. Had 2 days of induction (sorta like a Go Audit session for 1 person...teaching me just the basic stuff about office procedures), that was pretty good...2 days of doing nothing. Its back to the dreaded timesheets again (my audit friends you can understand this)...where I got to somehow find 6hrs of chargeable time per day (that is my quota), but unlike audit, its really stuff that the partners or seniors get you to do (could be anything from Corporate and Commercial stuff) and its really bits and pieces...6 hrs!!! how to how to? unlike an audit where you go on an engagement for the entire day and you can simply charge the full 7.5 hrs to the job, whereas here its all in office and OA is not really an option :P...its actually you that has to go out and find the work (unless the partner happens to come into your office and dumps a case file on you). This is exactly what happened on my first day :) haha...a senior partner comes into my office and gives me the 2 cases to look into (one of which involves the appointment of auditors under the Corporations Act believe it or not?! :P) and wants me to write up some research on the matter! Now, here I faced another problem...for the past 2 years my head has been filled with Dr and Cr, PnL and Bal Sheet...now I am 'thrown into the deep end' and had to somehow remember how I did legal research and write advice up (which I did in law school in 2004)...if you don't do something everyday then eventually you will forget it. This is what happened..had a brain freeze...$#@^ luckily when the partner left, I could ask my buddy (a junior lawyer) and call up my lawyer friends (all in Perth) to find out where to start :P phew! Still see that I will encounter some difficulty, namely remembering how to be a lawyer and what I learnt at law school so many years ago :P (also this firm is mostly made up of Aussies...only another asian lawyer here :P) well no one said it was going to be easy haha...

Anyway at Ebsworth...would you believe I have my own secretary! (ok...well a shared secretary) don't know how to handle that or what work to give her..haha...oh well will figure that out over time. I also have this dictaphone thingy, which I am meant to dictate and upload onto the server and someone (my secretary? or typing pool) will type out what I say (could be a letter, memo, advice, etc)...haha...can you imagine doing a FS by that means? How to talk slowly and clearly and also add in the pronouceaction :P its like a totally proper callover...but this time definitely with partner review :P haha...oh well time will tell and I suppose its part of everyday lawyer life.

Also there are free lunches provided by the firm from Mon-Thurs, and free softdrink in the fridge in the lounge (picture above)...save $$$ :). The reason for this is because of 'staff welfare' - but I believe its so that you got no excuse to go outside (and procastinate) for lunch and rather can go straight back to your desk to work! :P haha...more productive method (also the caffine in the free coke helps). The office (and the entire building is quite nice and new :) Here are some of the pics from around my office:
Transparent glass elevators for the entire building can see outside onto the streets and Sydney skyline...pretty cool design :)
An open office concept, the secretaries sit in the middle isle, while the rooms are for the lawyers :)
A fountain outside my building...to bring wealth and prosperity (Deutsche Bank is also a major tenant)...haha...nice feature

The next year should be an adventure, and this week will probably be my most relaxed one of all..so wish me luck my friends and see you online (hopefully) haha...

posted by Darren at 3:10 AM