Day in the life of a Corporate Paralegal

Gemma is a Paralegal in HCR Law’s Thames Valley office and works in the Corporate team of 11, including four partners. The team is a force of nature in M&A and private equity and is well known across the corporate finance community in and around Reading.

Gemma joined the team in August 2025 on a full-time basis and now works four days a week, with one day at university studying for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). Here’s a snapshot of a typical day for Gemma.

My working day often begins before 8am, as I try to get an hour of university reading done either at home or at a café next to the office before I arrive.

8.30am

Once I arrive in the office, I check my emails and update my to-do list. If a transaction is due to complete, I’ll have kept an eye on my emails on my phone the night before and first thing in the morning. This helps to ensure I’m aware of anything that might need my immediate attention when I get in.

9am – 12.30pm

We regularly act for shareholders who are proposing to sell their shares to a buyer. Part of our role in the Corporate team is to project manage the transaction and keep it moving forward. This involves liaising with our clients, the buyer’s solicitors, corporate finance advisers and other parties to ensure deadlines are met. Clear communication and strong organisation are essential.

As a Paralegal, part of my role is to support the transactional lead solicitor in being proactive to achieve this.

This morning, I’m producing first-draft ancillary documents, such as board minutes and stock transfer forms. I know the solicitor leading the transaction wants to send these documents to the buyer’s solicitors tomorrow, so I’m keen to finish this task this morning to give them plenty of time to review before they’re sent out.

Once I’ve drafted a document and the solicitor has reviewed it, they always make time to talk me through any changes. HCR’s supportive approach to learning is something that really attracted me to the firm. My team genuinely invests time in training and learning development, which has helped me grow as a budding lawyer.

Before lunch, I’m making filings at Companies House following the recent completion of a transaction.

12.30pm

Lunchtime! We’re lucky in Reading to have plenty of good food spots nearby – less lucky for my bank balance.

The Thames Valley office is one of 13 across HCR and is particularly well known for its culture. In other words, we like to have a laugh and enjoy ourselves! At lunch, colleagues – from Paralegals to Partners – often gather around the lunch table in the centre of the office for a catch up.

1.30pm – 4.30pm

Gossip complete, I head back to my desk to continue work. This afternoon, I’m joining a disclosure call with our client. This involves going through the warranties in a share purchase agreement (SPA) line by line so we can prepare a disclosure letter.

A disclosure letter is designed to protect the seller against any breach of warranty claims under the SPA. We go through the warranties, explaining what they mean, and ask our client whether any of them are untrue. For example, a warranty may state that the company has no pending litigation against it. By signing the SPA, our client would be confirming to the buyer that this is the case. If it isn’t, we would need to disclose against it by providing as much detail as possible relating to the pending litigation in the disclosure letter.

Our job is to draw out any relevant information the buyer should be aware of, so they can’t argue there’s been a breach. A solicitor in the team leads the call, while my role is to take detailed notes and prepare a first draft of the disclosure letter for my colleague to review.

Disclosure letters are a particularly interesting part of my role, as you really get to know the inner workings of the target business, from its intellectual property and employees to how it operates and where its value lies.

After the disclosure call, I move on to another task: reviewing and updating a pre-completion checklist and updating the transactional lead on the status of completion deliverables.

4.30pm onwards

Towards the end of my day, I review my ongoing tasks and consider my priorities. I check in with the solicitors in the team to make sure I’m aware of any upcoming deadlines and can plan my workload accordingly.