Monday, 14 January, 18.10Happy New Year and welcome back to my blog one and all. I'm sure you have all be waiting with baited breath for my next instalment after my festive absence so I shall try and bring you up to date with the
goings on in my legal world.
My first run up to Christmas as a "young professional" was quite enjoyable. Plenty of socialising combined with the festive cheer and general merriment with the prospect of a two week holiday led to a very pleasant working atmosphere and an enjoyable wind down to Christmas. Although it was a wind down in some respects I did have a number of cases to get through and there was a bit of a battle against some banks who didn't seem to be in much of a hurry to get money drawn down in time for an early Christmas present for the clients.
When the holidays did come, sods law, I got the flu and was bed ridden (melodramatic, but I am a man) for the duration. I suspect that my immune system has been tampered with by the HR department so that I don't take any more time off than necessary.
Now, fully recovered, I'm all set for the year ahead. My first priority is to try to fully get to grips with the conveyancing malarkey. One thing that I've noticed recently is how much of a gem of a book "Gretton and Reid" is; I'd go as far as to say it's enjoyable to read. At university I remember long nights in the library prior to my conveyancing exam reading through it and hating every minute of it. Now that I'm in practice everything make so much more sense and I find myself picking it up to research something and getting side-tracked by other chapters. I'm not the only one, the other trainee in my department agrees. Proof (for me anyway) that I'm not weird.
Another thing that I've recently become aware of (and again I have corroboration from a friend doing his traineeship elsewhere that this isn't a peculiarity of mine) is that I don't like sending conveyancing drafts back if I haven't been able to add something; I almost feel as if I haven't done my bit in the transaction.
I suppose there are two sides to this coin. Firstly it means I'm thorough in my perusal of deeds and documents so if there is an error I'll (hopefully) find it. Conversely some would say that I am just looking to change things for the sake of change and I have since learned that it is considered rather rude to make revisals of style.
On that note one of my colleagues showed me a deed last week that she had almost totally revised as she felt, and I agreed, that it was drafted poorly. She then received a letter from the purchasing solicitors indicating that they would not be making the changes as they were "stylistic".
Perhaps this is the process of learning to agree to disagree. I suppose this is part of the very nature of being a solicitor – there's always another way to draft something and of course all of us think that our method is better. I'll be guided by Gretton and Reid for now…
