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Jacob Kojfman
Senior Legal Counsel
The Co-operators Group Ltd.
Vancouver, Canada
6:00 am
My Apple Watch alarm goes off; sometimes I hit snooze and other times I get up. I find it easier to get up earlier in the morning earlier in the week than later. I start the day by making a pot of coffee, playing Wordle. Sometimes, I pack my daughter’s snacks and lunch during this time. Because I work mostly with people in EST and I’m in PST, I scan my emails to see if there are any fires and confirm my schedule in my calendar.
6:30 am
I do some French lessons on Duolingo, catch up on the headlines on Apple News, or read whatever book I’m working through. These days it is “Good Power” by Ginni Rommetty, and “Klan War” about President Grant taking on the Ku Klux Klan.
7:00 am
Depending on my meeting schedule, workload, and my wife’s exercise schedule I try to make it to the gym or do a Peloton ride to get some exercise. Aside from the physical benefits of exercise, I find it helps me focus better during the day.
9:00 am
My workday can start anytime between 8:00 am or 9:15 am depending on whether I walk my daughter to school or not. I work from home, so I walk 20 feet or so from the kitchen to my desk with a cup of water and a fresh cup of coffee. I’m on the IP Network leadership and there’s usually something to deal with that.
10:00 am
After a quick scan of emails to see if I need to reprioritize something, I start to work on my to do list. This week it is reviewing a new contract that is a renewal and continuing to move forward some other commercial agreements. There’s a lot of collaboration with my internal business clients; I want to make sure I really understand the services a vendor offers, so I can give the best advice. Contracts are just words on a page and the real risk comes in the actual details about the services and how the vendor provides them.
11:00 am
I try to connect with the other lawyers on the commercial team (there are four of us who report to our boss) or some of the people who used to be on our contracts team. I’ll also reach out to a contact on LinkedIn or send a quick email to a friend to continue to build the relationships.
12:00 pm
I try to have lunch with people once or twice a week otherwise I may not see people in three dimension all day.
1:00 pm
Back at my desk, I check my emails to see which of my internal clients have responded to my asks for more information and details about what I’m working on with them.
2:30 pm
Most of my internal clients have finished their workday. This gives me a good block of time with minimal interruptions for me to finish some contract reviews and send out drafts to my clients, so they have them when they start their days tomorrow.
4:15 pm
I leave for soccer practice. I coach my daughter’s soccer team. I started in 2020 because of a lack of volunteers. Thank goodness for YouTube!
8:00 pm
After dinner, I finish some other work, replying to emails, saving documents to our document management system, and then filing them in my personal email folders so I can find them quickly.
9:30 pm
I do some chores and join my wife on the couch to read while she streams whatever show she’s watching. I’ll finish up my daily French lessons, do a quick meditation, and get ready for bed.
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