Day in the Life: Bailey Duke of Worcester Investments

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Name: Bailey Duke  

Title: General Counsel  

Company: Worcester Investments 

Location: Kansas City, MO 

3:13 am:  

I awake to the feeling of being watched. I look expectedly around the dark room and spot the intruder. Our three-year-old daughter stands at the foot of our bed in her spider man pajamas, holding her mermaid water cup, a panda large stuffy, and an even bigger unicorn stuffy. Despite her sinister presence, a tiny voice calls from the dark “mommy, I am ready for you to come lay with me.” In a sleep induced stupor, I climb the stairs and tuck myself in next to her.   

6:15 am: 

“It’s morning, mommy!” Indeed, light trickles in from the fold of her curtains as a plead for five more minutes. Her eyes are lit with the promise of a new day — five more minutes equates to five hours to a three-year-old. We get up and meander downstairs. We feed the cat, put out the dog, and sip our milk (for her) and coffee (for me) while I answer this morning’s emails from the couch.  

7:15 am:  

I swiftly get ready to head into the office as my daughter sits on the bathroom counter, forever amused by my foreign make-up and colorful skin care bottles.  

9:15 am:  

I drop my daughter at daycare and arrive at the office, never fully sure what the day will bring. Today, I have a meeting with HR regarding an employee issue as well as a meeting with Investors Relations to discuss foreclosure strategy. I know my two scheduled meetings will be accompanied by five or six unscheduled meetings by the end of the day. I spend the first hour reviewing a lease amendment and sending it to the CFO for final approval.  

10:30 am:  

I spend some time making significant changes to the company’s operating agreement to curve some anticipated risk in regards to Special and Springing Members.  

12:45 pm:  

I eat a DoorDash order of spring rolls as I make some proposed edits to a data privacy clause in a software agreement that the company is considering entering into.  

1:10 pm:  

I have a call with our insurance adjuster to better understand our coverage in the face of a potential issue on a property we don’t own, but merely perform property management services for.   

1:45 pm:  

I read an article sent to me by our outside venture capital attorney regarding a change in California law that may impact how we raise funds and the types of companies our venture fund can invest in.  

2:00 pm: 

I get on a call with opposing counsel regarding a property management contract and we negotiate the indemnification language that best protects our own businesses.   

3:00 pm:  

I send an update to the leadership team regarding all ongoing litigation across the organization to ensure all teammates are up to date and spend the next hour answering questions that come from the litigation update.  

3:45pm:  

I pivot to a long-term project of setting up a standard operating process for contract review, negotiation, and retention in order to centralize and track contract lifecycles across the organization.  

4:30 pm:  

I do some research about another equity fund the company is exploring to best understand the most desirable entity structure when the company is ready for formation. I also research the dissolution of a company in the state of Missouri to prepare to dissolve all inactive LLCs — another long-term project.    

5:30 pm:  

I get home to my daughter and husband, we leash the dog and go on a walk around the neighborhood. All roads always lead to the park, regardless of temperate. I catch up with my husband, also an attorney, on a park bench as my daughter attempts to get the dog to go down the slide with her.  

6:30 pm:  

We eat fish, vegetables and rice, while my daughter eats mac and cheese and sweet peppers slathered in an impressive amount of Ranch dressing.  

7:30 pm:  

It’s my night for bedtime (we rotate each night), so I leave my husband to clean the kitchen and the obscene amount of naked barbies littering our living room. We read five books (yes FIVE) and my daughter drifts to sleep on my tingling arm about thirty minutes later. I tip toe from her room and deflate when her little voice breaks with the squeak of her door “Mommy! Come back!” 

8:30 pm:  

I make it out of the flower printed room with the stealthiness I imagine only a Marine or parent of small children possesses and join my husband from our spot on the couch. We watch the Olympics (an absolute treat every two years), and I continue on with my current fictional read, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid.  

10:05 pm:  

I am taken by sleep, usually with the much appreciated support of a sleep aid, as I wonder how many hours I have until a small blonde human stands at the foot of our bed and I kick my husband awake, as it is in fact, his turn to be sequestered to her unicorn sheets.