A Day in the Life of Associate Sebastian Adolph

I typically arrive at the London office shortly before 9:30 in order to take advantage of the free breakfast and coffee provided in the cafeteria. The cafeteria is a popular meeting point , and I often find myself sitting with a mix of partners, associates, trainees and support staff. Meals in the cafeteria provide a valuable opportunity to catch up informally with colleagues, and we often have spirited debates on topics ranging from recent deals to upcoming sports fixtures.

I start my day by reviewing emails that I received overnight and organising my inbox so that it focuses on actionable items. As GP associates are often staffed on multiple deals with varying timelines, it is important to develop your own system for managing email traffic effectively. I then typically write a to-do list based on my preliminary review and will prioritise tasks based on their urgency.

I always aim to tackle more urgent and time consuming tasks early in the day in order to give the senior associates sufficient time to review my work later on. I recently spent most of my morning reviewing draft ancillary documents for a financing deal where S&C acted for the lender. This involved reviewing changes to the documents made by the borrower’s lawyers and evaluating whether their changes would be acceptable to our client. I then inserted my own amendments and added footnotes addressed to the rest of the S&C team explaining any material changes. After I finished, I shared the updated drafts with the senior associate in the deal team to review, along with any accompanying redlines (documents that are used to display my edits to the documents in a visually clearer way) and a cover email summarising my changes.

I prefer to eat lunch in the cafeteria given the range of  options available unless there is a lunchtime training session. Whilst a lot of learning happens “on the job”, S&C runs formal GP training sessions on a weekly basis. These sessions are typically organised into topical series, each focusing on a particular area of law relevant to the GP, and each series will consist of around five sessions. These sessions are well attended by trainees and associates, and attendees are encouraged to share any practical insights or anecdotal guidance drawn from practical experience.

After lunch, I typically update my to-do list and check the status of ongoing deals. Given S&C’s strong international client base, I often work on cross-border matters spanning multiple jurisdictions. This means that I regularly coordinate with local counsel for updates on documents and items involving non-English law. As I receive updates throughout the afternoon, I will record them in the relevant checklists and communicate them to the wider S&C team and, where appropriate, the client. Associates and trainees are provided with a lot of meaningful client exposure early on in their careers at S&C, so it is common to find yourself dialing into client calls to discuss developments.

If I am working late, I can order food to the office and often take the opportunity catch up with other associates. On quieter evenings, I try to catch evening classes at one of the gyms close to the office before heading home.