Senior Secretarial Work & Office Management Courses
There are no precisely defined routes into the role of Legal Secretary, but there are some key skills that many employers will be looking for. Firstly we'll cover day to day aspects of the job, and then we'll take a look at the type of training that might be relevant.
The majority of the work will involve typing correspondence on behalf of the lawyers you work for, and preparing legal forms and documents. 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. And of course sometimes solicitors will need you to attend court with them or visit a client in police custody.
General secretarial training may well get you into Legal Secretarial work, but a specialised skill-set will add to your employment opportunities.
Solicitors themselves tend to specialise - some deal with civil law and others with criminal law. Thus it could be you find work with a criminal lawyer, which would be a very different experience to working with a company lawyer.
As a rule though, the bigger the practice the more specialised the work is likely to be. Small local firms may only have one legal secretary who will handle everything.
Most of the work will be done on a PC in a single office environment. 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 well-trained legal secretary entering the industry might expect to start on around fifteen thousand a year, with increments to over twenty five thousand with experience.
Legal Secretarial Certification & Training Requirements
What skills do you need for legal secretarial work? Computer user skills and keyboard skills are top of the list, closely followed by an excellent aptitude for written English. Additionally lawyers need secretaries who are completely trustworthy and fair-minded, with very good practical and organisational abilities.
Whilst there are no real minimum qualifications to starting as a Legal Secretary, employers may look for GCSE's (especially in English and Maths.) Naturally, spelling and grammar are key skills for the job, and no professional should rely on spell-check. A working knowledge of Microsoft Word will be expected, and knowledge of other Microsoft applications a definite advantage. You can look at stand alone office skills packages - why not try the European Computer Driving Licence for starters.
You'll notice a selection of colleges on this page. If you hold down the ctrl button on your keyboard and type 'D', you can bookmark this site. Then you can access any of them without wasting time.
You'll find that general secretarial (Pitman/OCR) and/or business administration qualifications can be very helpful. You must be able to present yourself well at interview to give yourself the best chance. Make sure that you convey a bright and attentive professional attitude, display team spirit and good spelling and grammar. (Watch your CV - in a job that places priority on accuracy of documentation, you don't want to drop a clanger here!)
What Actions Do I Take Now?
Many legal secretaries carry on with further training as they pursue their careers. They can then become experts in their company's specialism. This could mean being mentored from within the company, or (more usually) it could mean studying for external exams.
Training courses for legal secretaries cover a broad range of disciplines. For starters, you'll be taught about confidential ethics and practices, and be given an overview of the documents that legal secretaries deal with. Other modules might deal with the legal system itself, or how a court is structured. Then there are the specifics which will be dependent on your career path - be that civil litigation, company law, family law etc.
Prices for training vary - as will the standard of training - but you should expect to pay between five hundred and one thousand pounds.
On top of that you should budget for Microsoft Office skills training if you need that as well. Some training requires college attendance, but more usually courses can be taken in your own time on a distance learning basis.
Training as a Legal Executive
It's not uncommon for experienced Legal Secretaries to further their career by taking a Legal Executive certification. 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. It is very common today though to see Legal Executives working in all courts outside of the High Court. Their subject training and experience will determine which courts they have access to. Just like solicitors, legal execs can focus on civil litigation, criminal law etc.
So to re-cap, training to become a Legal Secretary can lead to a very fulfilling and rewarding career. Make a decision today to find out more about how this might work for you.
