Choosing where to begin your legal career is one of the most important decisions you'll make. In this series, our trainee solicitors share their experiences of life at Porter Dodson, offering practical advice, insights into the training contract journey and an honest perspective on developing a career in law. Whether you're considering applying for a training contract, exploring paralegal opportunities or preparing for the SQE route to qualification, these first-hand stories provide valuable guidance from those who have recently been in your position.
Follow me for a typical week in the life of a Contentious Probate and Trusts Trainee
I am currently in my first seat of my Training Contract in our Contentious Probate and Trusts Department in Taunton. Throughout this seat so far, I have had the opportunity to attend Court, attend a Mediation and have dealt with various matters ranging from Will Validity Challenges and 1975 Act Claims to Trust and Estate Administration Disputes.
Monday
To start of the week, I reviewed my inbox, responded to any emails that had come in over the weekend and prioritised my to do list.
I then spent most of the day preparing Court Bundles for an upcoming Hearing that was listed for Thursday. This included both hard copy Bundles and electronic copies of the Bundles which I then had to E-file with the Court and serve on all other parties.
To finish off my day, I had a telephone meeting with a Witness in order to prepare their Witness Statement. I had prepared various questions to ask the Witness and following the meeting I wrote up a detailed Attendance Note.
Tuesday
On Tuesday morning, I drafted the Witness Statement for the meeting that I had Monday afternoon. Once this had been approved, I sent this out to the Witness for their review.
For the rest of the morning, I completed various other smaller tasks including drafting the Retainer Documents and Deferred Funding Agreement for a new file, taking calls from Clients and actioning the same, and sending various letters and emails to Clients and other parties to progress matters.
After lunch, I spent some time planning and organising the upcoming Christmas Party as I am a member of our Social Committee.
I then spent the rest of the afternoon dealing with various emails from Clients and completing various tasks to prepare for the upcoming Hearing on Thursday.
In the evening, I drove to Wellington School to play in a Mixed Hockey Match against Wellington Fox’s Hockey Club. Porter Dodson organises lots of mixed sports matches against local businesses and clubs and I always try to get involved in these.
Wednesday
I spent my morning working through our Teams task list. This involved lots of follow up emails and updates to Clients and various calls to the Court to chase matters.
I was then tasked with putting together a Will Preparation File and so I reviewed the old physical and electronic files in order to put this together on Adobe. 
At lunchtime, I dropped off my Pumpkin entry for our Office Pumpkin Carving
Competition to raise money for charity. Our Charity Committee organises lots of fun, seasonal events to raise money for our office Charities and so there’s always something to get involved with.
In the afternoon, I then had to draft a Witness Statement on behalf of my Supervisor to support an Application that we were making to Court. This included a full breakdown and chronology of everything that had happened so far and so I spent quite a bit of time reviewing the case before drafting the same.
Finally, I had my four-month review with my Supervisor. As part of my Training Contract, we have meetings with our Supervisor each month to review our Training Records and to receive feedback.
Thursday
On Thursday, I drove down to Exeter to work with my Supervisor in our Exeter Office for the day. Whilst I am mainly based in our Taunton Office for this seat, I have also been working from both our Yeovil and Exeter Offices which has been a nice opportunity to meet other colleagues.
We had an Interim Application Hearing taking place via Zoom on this day, and so we sat in the Boardroom to watch this. This was my first time attending a Court Hearing and it was an invaluable experience. The Hearing took up most of the day and I was tasked with keeping notes throughout.
Following the Hearing, we had various calls with our Client and Counsel to discuss the same.
That evening, I then drove back to Taunton to play a Netball match in a local social league that we play in every Thursday.
Friday
On Friday, I spent the morning writing up and finalising the Attendance Note of the Hearing that had taken place on Thursday.
I was then asked to prepare various documents so that we could apply to Appeal the Decision made in the Hearing. This involved requesting a Transcript of the Hearing from Court, preparing Instructions to Counsel and drafting letters to the other parties.
In the afternoon, I had various tasks and emails to work through including reviewing a Letter of Claim received from the other side and drafting an email of advice to our Client.
In the evening, I attended the Taunton Roundtable Charity Dinner with some of my colleagues. This was a great evening, with opportunities to network with other professionals and local businesses, whilst raising money for a great cause.
Ellice Pounder, Newly Qualified Solicitor
Written by Ellice during her Training Contract with Porter Dodson in 2024-25. Ellice has since qualified into the Private Client team and is working as a newly qualified solicitor in our Yeovil office.
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