Becoming A Legal Secretary & Legal Training (Contracts)
You won't find any hard and fast rules for getting a position as a legal secretary, though clearly the role demands a number of key competencies. We'll discuss here what the job involves, and cover possible training paths into the industry.
Essentially you will be expected to have excellent typing skills as the bulk of the work involves preparing legal documents. You might also be involved with other administrative tasks, such as diary organising and appointment booking. The work becomes more specialist when, for example, you have to attend the magistrate's court or a police cell with one of the company's solicitors.
Many legal secretaries start off as general secretaries, but increasingly those who've specialised are being considered more suitable. Legal professionals will either work on criminal cases or civil cases, or a division of one of those. Thus it could be you find work with a criminal lawyer, which would be a very different experience to working with a company lawyer.
The size of office you work in will also determine how specialised your work is likely to be - firms with several legal secretaries may allocate one speciality to each.
Most of the work will be done on a PC in a single office environment. Typical hours will be Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm - although part-time work, flexi-time or even job sharing may be possible. 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.
Training for Legal Secretaries
What exactly does it take to become a legal secretary? Outstanding keyboard & computer skills would be high on the list of requirements, alongside a good command of the English language. You should also be very accurate, pay attention to detail, have good organisational skills and an interest in the law.
Some employers will ask for academic qualifications, but there isn't a set standard across the board. As you would expect, a good working knowledge of English grammar, spelling and punctuation is fairly essential to the whole process.
Microsoft Office is used extensively in the commercial world, which means you must have a good understanding of Word in particular. For training to Proficient or Expert level in all the necessary Microsoft applications, the training to look at is Microsoft Office Specialist (MS Office 2003) or Microsoft Certified Application Specialist (MS Office 2007).
You'll find links and adverts from several training providers here, so it would be worthwhile bookmarking this page ('CTRL-D' will do the trick). That way you'll find it easily if you want to come back and explore any of them.
Some of the training colleges offer very helpful advice for people looking to get started in secretarial work. With many Legal Secretaries coming into the industry from other secretarial roles, it's fair to say that the competition has increased. Always present yourself in your best light - show how you can contribute to the business as a whole. Check and double check your CV before you send it to an employer though. You could fall at the first hurdle if you're spelling's not up to snuff!
What's the Next Stage?
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.
Legal secretarial training covers many areas. In the first place you need to have an understanding about the key factors concerning legal documentation. You'll probably cover information about court procedure and how laws are arrived at. However the bulk of your studies will probably focus on the subject matter relevant to your law firm's expertise, which might be Land Law, Family Law, Criminal Law or one or more of many other legal areas.
In 2010 you can expect to invest from five hundred pounds upwards for professional legal secretarial training and certifications. That figure is exclusive of any computer software skills training you might need - add in another 100 pounds or so for an ECDL, or considerably more for MOS/MCAS. There are a lot of colleges to choose from - look carefully at the features their courses provide to find the best one for you.
What Goes into Becoming a Legal Executive?
Further training can lead to becoming a qualified Legal Executive. Legal Executives must continue training throughout their careers to keep abreast of the latest legal developments. In many ways they act on behalf of clients in the same manner as a lawyer would, but they cannot represent them in High Court. However, with the extended rights of audience now in place, there are many Legal Executives who can represent their clients in County Courts, Family Proceedings Courts and the Magistrates Courts.
Which courts they can work in largely depends on the area and level of their expertise. Legal Executives can specialise in the same range of activities that other lawyers can.
Our aim in this information sheet has been to give you a taste of how life could be for you as a professional Legal Secretary. With so many training options available to you, isn't it time to get the ball rolling?
