New year, new career!

We’re back! The new decade sees me, Josie and Ainsleigh returning to HGM as Law Clerks to get our fresh, new legal careers off to a great start.

Since our HGM Summer Clerk internships, I’ve finally left IT and completed my LLB(Hons) at Auckland University of Technology, Josie has finished the last semester of her LLB in Spain and spent five months travelling Europe and Africa, and Ainsleigh finished her Honours Law and Pharmacology degree at the University of Auckland and travelled around Sweden and Denmark.  

In keeping with HGM’s “power of three” motif, we were asked three questions about our return to the fold:  

‍We’re really stoked to have you on board, what are you looking forward to?

Ainsleigh: “Would I be a bit of a nerd if I said I enjoyed legal research?” - (Yes, but you’re in good company, Ainsleigh. You don’t end up at a techie law firm without being a nerd of some sort.)

Josie: “I’m excited to be on board! And can’t wait to work with the partners on deals involving both local start-ups and leading global tech companies.”

Personally, I’m looking forward to proofreading! Seriously. I live for correcting punctuation errors. Oh, and exploring the intersection of law and technology.

‍Give us a snippet of what a day in the life of a Law Clerk looks like?

Ainsleigh: “A good coffee and breakfast is a must, then its discovery and document drafting time!”

Josie: “Wake up, have a coffee, get into the office, make a coffee, review documents, go out to coffee with a partner, get the shakes and realise you have overdone it, have another coffee anyway, do some discovery, go home, and repeat.”

As for me, the day generally includes discovery, legal research, coffee and the occasional international mission. Also, some time spent admiring the view from our new offices.

NB: HGM is currently reviewing a massive pile of documents, it’s not always discovery and coffee. It’s usually much more varied work and coffee.

It goes without saying that there is a bit of a leap going from full time study to launching into a legal career, how can HGM support you?

Ainsleigh: “Working in a law firm is a whole different kettle of fish to studying at law school! I really want to learn as much as I can so getting feedback on my work is extremely important to me!”

Josie: “Staying approachable, providing meaningful feedback on the work we produce and encouraging us develop as soon-to-be-lawyers.”

Me, I’m just pleased to be back working full-time. That said, HGM is helping my transition from IT guy to Law Clerk by asking me the occasional tech-support question!

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