A Day in the Life of a Private Client Partner at HCR Law

No two days look the same in private client work, which is precisely why I love it.

My morning begins, coffee in hand, with a quick scan of overnight emails before our team huddle at 9am. It’s a chance to check in on workloads, flag anything urgent and make sure nobody is quietly drowning.

Today, one of our trainees has drafted a will for a client with a particularly complex family trust structure. I pull up her work and we sit together for 15 minutes, talking through her reasoning. She’s done a solid job — with a few tweaks to the trustee powers clause, it’s ready to go.

These moments are genuinely one of the best parts of the role: watching someone grow in confidence and skill, one careful document at a time.

By 10am, I’m on a call with a recently bereaved client who is navigating her late husband’s estate. There’s tax planning to discuss, but more importantly, there’s a person who needs to feel heard.

Private client work sits between the technical and the deeply personal, and getting that balance right matters enormously.

Late morning brings a Partners’ meeting. We’re reviewing the team’s capacity for the quarter ahead and discussing a new initiative around digital estate planning. I make my point about resourcing, try not to talk for too long and leave only slightly behind schedule.

Lunch is with a financial adviser I’ve known for years. We swap referrals, catch up on regulatory changes and argue good-naturedly about whose profession generates more paperwork.

Relationships like these are the quiet engine of any private client practice. They’re built over years, sustained by trust and the occasional trip to the rugby or theatre.

The afternoon is a mix of drafting and reviewing, alongside a quick call with a colleague in our Corporate team about a business owner client whose succession planning touches both our areas of work.

Then it’s time for one more client meeting, this time with a couple updating their wills after the arrival of a grandchild. They leave smiling, which is no small thing in a solicitor’s office.

By 6pm, I’m tidying my desk (optimistically) and heading out for a swim — or yoga, depending on how much patience I have left. It’s my non-negotiable reset before the evening takes over.

The variety of the role — mentoring, managing, advising, building relationships and collaborating across teams — is what makes this work endlessly rewarding. No two days are the same. I wouldn’t have it any other way.