Lots of firms talk about giving their trainees plenty of responsibility early on. It’s certainly true at Michelmores.
I’m just over half-way through my first seat in the Restructuring and Insolvency team. Today, I conducted my first hearing at court.
The team advises a wide range of clients including banks, insolvency practitioners, creditors, individuals and companies. We had been instructed by one of those companies to petition for its liquidation. I was asked to attend the hearing of the company’s petition and request that the court make an order that the company be wound up.
“A Few Good Men” it wasn’t. I simply had to satisfy the judge that we had complied with the relevant statutory provisions and that it was appropriate to make the order. In fact, the trickiest bit was negotiating my way to the bench to pass the judge our certificates showing the company was still insolvent, the petition had been advertised and that no creditors had given notice that they would appear.
Even so, it was really nice to get my first hearing out of the way. It was also a good opportunity to get a feel for the breadth of issues dealt with by district judges sitting in county courts. I’m back in the office now and looking forward to doing something a bit more substantial next time.