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Legal & Secretarial Work - PA Training For A Better Career

Legal secretarial work can be extremely interesting and rewarding for anyone with the right disciplines and skills. We'll go on to suggest possible training later on, but first let's get a feel for what the job entails.

The principal activity for all legal secretaries involves the preparation of legal documents and paperwork on behalf of barrister's, solicitors or legal executives. In addition, those who work for small companies may well cover general administrative tasks as well. Equally you might have to deal with legal enquiries from potential clients, or even take notes in court.

If you've already had secretarial training or experience, you may want to take a specialist course to improve your skill-set for the industry. Solicitors themselves tend to specialise - some deal with civil law and others with criminal law. Which means there's a great variety of work - and then some offices are concerned with family law, and others might be concerned with company law. That said, although those who work in large companies tend to deal in more specialised areas, a legal secretary in a small practice may handle many areas of the law.

So to re-cap - most of the work will be done sitting at your desk in the office. Normal weekday office hours are standard, with the usual statutory entitlements. Some legal secretaries in larger offices work on a flexi-time arrangement. Starting salaries generally vary from twelve to fifteen thousand pounds a year. However, a top legal secretary can command a very attractive thirty thousand pound salary after a few years.

Training To Become A Legal Secretary

Which skills are most important to a future employer? 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.

Employers may stipulate certain academic qualifications, though usually this is just to demonstrate an aptitude level. The need for a confident approach to grammar, punctuation and spelling goes without saying. An ability to use Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel and probably PowerPoint is essential - with particular emphasis on skills in Word. Study for an ECDL for basic computer user skills, or MOS or MCAS for more advanced Microsoft Office professional skills. As you'll find a number of trainers featured here, you might like to Bookmark this reference page - a handy shortcut for this is to simply type in 'Ctrl D'. Then you can come back at your convenience to review the options.

There are quite a number of well established secretarial colleges promoting their services on the internet - see what information they have that's useful. Legal secretarial work attracts people from many different administrative roles, so competition can be tough. Be sure to be positive, attentive and responsive - employers like to get a feel for how someone would fit into their working environment. Ultimately though, prepare yourself with professional skills and just be yourself - hopefully your natural charm and enthusiasm will shine through.

What Actions Do I Take Now?

In order to fully educate their legal secretaries on the specific nature of their work, some firms train them alongside the job. So for example the law firm might have their own training programme for new employees, or they might allow time for college or home study.

A variety of disciplines will be dealt with on a bespoke training course for Legal Secretaries. To begin with you'll probably cover aspects of working in a legal office - such as documentation and privacy issues. Plus of course you'll need a grounding in the English (or Scottish) legal system. Then there are the specifics which will be dependent on your career path - be that civil litigation, company law, family law etc.

Training prices range from a few hundred pounds to around a thousand pounds, but of course that depends on how much you need to learn. On top of that you should budget for Microsoft Office skills training if you need that as well. You'll find both in-centre and home-based training programmes by looking online at the range of UK trainers.

Training To Become A Legal Executive

A natural progression for the experienced and career-focused Legal Secretary could be Legal Executive training. There are great career opportunities for Legal Executives. With the exception of representing clients in the High Court, most of their activities can be similar to other lawyers. It is very common today though to see Legal Executives working in all courts outside of the High Court. This depends though upon the field of expertise in which they're trained. Legal executives may go into Public Law, Corporate Law, or maybe pursue private clients of their own.

Building a fascinating and valuable career as a Legal Secretary will take you right to the heart of UK law. Make a decision today to find out more about how this might work for you.