CareerChangeHelp.co.uk

Legal Secretarial Work & Secretary Courses

If you're looking to get into Legal Secretarial work, you'll need to be orderly and disciplined, with a good aptitude for common sense! So let's take a look at the job itself, and explore the various options that could lead into it.

Legal secretaries must be highly proficient in touch typing, shorthand and audio in order to prepare official documents for lawyers. Other tasks will include keeping records of costs; controlling petty cash; organising diaries and making appointments; organising telephone calls and faxes; and sending, receiving and keeping an audit trail of e-mails. There are also some jobs that are specific to the legal industry, such as accompanying lawyers to court attendances.

General secretarial training may well get you into Legal Secretarial work, but a specialised skill-set will add to your employment opportunities. The legal profession is split into civil law and criminal law, and most lawyers will focus on just one. Consequently a legal secretary's work could range from Conveyancing to Probate to Divorce settlements. Legal secretaries working in a small local company will usually gain a wider range of experiences than those in larger companies (who are more likely to focus on one area).

The majority of a legal secretary's work will be done on the computer in the office. The work is mostly done during standard office hours, and although positions are usually full-time you will find some part-time work being advertised. A legal secretary with a good skill level and several years experience can earn a very nice salary - indeed sought after professionals would expect upwards of twenty eight to thirty thousand a year.

Study Paths For Legal Secretaries

Which skills are most important to a future employer? First and foremost you'll need to prove that you have excellent keyboard skills and a very good understanding of certain computer user skills. High emphasis will of course be placed on accuracy, so a patient and diligent approach will be expected.

Some employers will ask for academic qualifications, but there isn't a set standard across the board. Clearly if you're unsure about how to spell or compose a letter you will struggle in this sort of job.

As Microsoft Office products are the industry standard, you should be able to demonstrate advanced skills in Microsoft Word. Most legal secretaries can also use PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel. You should pass the ECDL in the first instance, to get you off to a good start. For more professional administrative skills, look into taking a certification such as MCAS. Training companies regularly feature on this page. For handy reference you could pop it in your list of Favourites. Then you can come back at your convenience to review the options.

There are a considerable number of training courses covering general secretarial and office administration skills, and they can all offer you something. Legal secretarial work attracts people from many different administrative roles, so competition can be tough. Employers are looking for people who can bring benefits to their organisation so don't be afraid to blow your own trumpet - if you excel at something let them know how that skill could make their life easier. To get an interview in the first place you must ensure your CV presents the right image - any mistakes here would take you straight off the short-list!

Where Do I Go From Here?

It's not unusual for legal secretaries to continue training once in employment. This allows them to specialise in areas relevant to the work they're doing. The bigger law firms may have their own training schemes, but it's more common for individuals to study alongside their job with an outside training provider.

Various Legal Secretarial training programmes are available, and they can be quite in-depth. For starters, you'll be taught about confidential ethics and practices, and be given an overview of the documents that legal secretaries deal with.

You'll probably cover information about court procedure and how laws are arrived at. More specific subjects looked at (from the legal secretary's perspective) might be Contract Law, Civil Litigation, Land Law, Conveyancing, Wills and Probate.

The cost of training depends on what you do, but most legal secretaries pay several hundred pounds to learn their skills. For computer user skills training allow one hundred pounds plus for your ECDL, or several hundred pounds plus for the more advanced Office skills training. Many specialist secretarial colleges have been successfully training students for several decades. Their programmes have been proven over time.

Training as a Legal Executive

If your ambitions go beyond the remit of Legal Secretary, you could progress onto becoming a Legal Executive in time. This is a position midway between the Legal Secretary and the Lawyer. Under the Legal Services Act 2007, Legal Executives are 'authorised persons' undertaking 'reserved legal activities' (not in the High Court) alongside barristers and solicitors. It is very common today though to see Legal Executives working in all courts outside of the High Court. Any work they do will of course depend upon the subject matter they've trained in. Legal executives may go into Public Law, Corporate Law, or maybe pursue private clients of their own.

In closing, if you study to gain the skills for work as a legal secretary, you could build a very promising and interesting career. It's down to you now to explore how you can turn your dreams and goals into reality.