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I put on Unifrog that I would be doing work experience from Monday to Wednesday but I'm also doing today (Thursday) so I will add a brief journal for it.

Before actually starting work, I got to see the new offices that all the employees are moving into next week which is exciting because HADEF & Partners is 45 years old and has always been in the same location. I finished the work I started yesterday by reading through and highlighting chat logs from a slightly earlier time period which was cool since I was able to learn more context about the case. Once everything was completed, my sister and I had a meeting with the trainee and she explained in detail how litigation works through the steps in court, as well as how criminal lawyers are involved. There are 3 different types of court: Court of First Instance, Court of Appeal, and Court of Cassation (the highest judicial authority). I also learned about the different types of disputes that HADEF usually deals with: commercial, civil, and construction. Towards the end of my working day, I met some people from the corporate department and they explained what they do on a day-to-day basis since I was unfortunately unable to properly work in the corporate department during my work experience placement. I've left feeling quite surprised by how diverse law is and having a much broader perspective on the industry.

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Today I moved departments, so I spent the day in the litigation department (a floor above regulatory/corporate). Well, at first I thought it was labelled the litigation department but then quickly learned the difference between litigation and dispute resolution, the latter being a broader term that encompasses things like arbitration that occurs outside of the court. A trainee working in the dispute resolution department very kindly introduced Layla and I to everyone on that floor. The main challenge was that, in this department, everyone speaks Arabic but there are only a few bilingual Arabic and English speakers. I was still able to speak to many different kinds of people such as someone working in the execution department (like freezing people's assets and such to enforce a judgement), someone working in the finance department (they deal with salaries and payments), someone working in the marketing team (he gave a special presentation just to us about what he does and how important it is for the firm, for example attracting clientele), and also some very experienced lawyers working in litigation. I was most interested in learning about why they chose to work in litigation over regulatory and corporate in which the collective response was that each day is different and unpredictable compared to how the other two can get somewhat monotonous. Talking to all these employees has been my highlight of this work experience placement thus far because it really motivated me to be a hard worker.

The first thing I think of when I think about being a lawyer is usually litigation (specifically a barrister), defending a client in court. That's why I was very excited to learn that I would be going through a real ongoing case that is VERY CONFIDENTIAL. I doubt I can go into more detail than saying that I was given a sworn affidavit and the chat logs relating to a financial fraud case (in which HADEF's client is currently being prosecuted for) and then I highlighted relevant details and wrote some notes since the chat log was VERY long and took place over the span of around 6 months. This took 2-3 hours to complete but I never got bored because it was as interesting as reading a story, although it felt a bit odd since I felt like I was breaching someone's privacy by looking through their WhatsApp chats.

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I can't add any pictures of what I did today because the work was confidential. I decided to spend another day in the Regulatory department (where my mum works) and my sister and I spent the majority of the day researching about and completing an actual task that a client requested from HADEF. I researched the Whistleblower Regime of both ADGM (a financial center in Abu Dhabi that my dad works in) and DIFC (a financial center in Dubai that my mum used to work in). This was all new information to me so, naturally, I learned loads, especially since Whistleblower Protection Regulations are so crucial for all companies. This means that the process of an individual reporting a regulatory concern (usually financial crime like money laundering or contravening legislation) is facilitated and ensures that the 'whistleblower' doesn't experience any harm towards their job or well being (like being dismissed or sued). After completing my task, my sister and I had a meeting with my mum and her boss where we discussed our findings and I learned a lot about what to look for when comparing policies so that next time I am more efficient and waste less time.

I developed my existing research and analytic skills whilst also forming new policy evaluation skills which extend beyond law since I have also been considering a career in something like Public Policy.

I also spoke to some people and they enlightened me about how the law industry is very merit-based so lawyers need to be very hardworking in order to do well. I also learned about how HADEF cares more about an applicant's character than their legal knowledge when conducting interviews.

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Today was the first day of my work experience placement of which I will be spending 4 days completing. The first thing I did was sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) to ensure that all the personal information I come to learn about the law firm and its employees is kept confidential. The three other interns (including my twin sister) and myself sat around the meeting room where, after we got to know each other, an employee gave a presentation on the three different departments in the law firm: Regulatory, Corporate, and Litigation. I have attached the notes I made during the presentation. Afterwards, we split into two teams ('companies') and had a mock court case where we had to defend our company using the information we were given from the case where both parties had failed to uphold their side of the barter agreement. This helped me develop critical thinking skills and I also learned the valuable lesson that usually lawyers need to prioritise satisfying their clients over objectively determining who is at fault. Afterwards, I met several employees and spoke to them about their experiences studying law and entering the industry, both the challenges and benefits that come alongside their job.